Preparation and regeneration of protoplast from antitumor agent epothilone-producing microbes myxobacteria

Guo-li Gong, Xuan-ming Wei, Yu

Abstract

Myxobacteria are amongst the top producers of natural products. The diversity and unique structural properties of their secondary metabolites is what make these microbes highly attractive for drug discovery, particularly epothilones, cytotoxic macrolides that mimic the effects of paclitaxel on cancer cells (i.e., microtubule stabilization) are highly promising prospective anticancer agents that naturally produced by myxobacteria. In this paper, some factors affecting the preparation and regeneration of protoplasts from myxobacteria were discussed, including enzymes, osmotic stabilizers, and regeneration medium, et al. This study laid the foundation to improve epothilone-producing strains by protoplast mutagensis, transformation, fusion, and even genome shuffling.