Effect of methyl jasmonate on Taxol production and bapt gene expression of Taxus baccata

Taxol is one of the most important secondary metabolites that plays an important role in the treatment of various cancers. This valuable substance is produced through a complex pathway. Due to the low production of Taxol and the risk of extinction of yew, increasing demand of Taxol production has become very important. In this research, plant samples were treated with 0, 100, 250 and 500 μM methyl jasmonate and kept in phytotron for 48 and 72 hours. After treatment with methyl jasmonate, the expression of the stem bapt gene was investigated by Real Time PCR method and the amount of the produced Taxol was measured using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The obtained data were analyzed statistically. The results showed that the expression of bapt gene at a concentration of 100 μM in 48 hours was 5.13 times higher than that of the control. In addition, the highest amount of Taxol was observed in the plant treated with 500 μM methyl jasmonate in 72 hours with 0.315 mg/g dry weight. Pearson’s correlation test showed that there was no relationship between gene expression and Taxol production. It seems to be due to the time difference between gene expression and Taxol production under methyl jasmonate. Considering the importance of Taxol in the pharmaceutical industry, it was recommended using methyl jasmonate with concentration of higher than 500 μM with periods longer than three days to examine the possible increasing of Taxol production