Selecting Preparation Methods and Isolating Components of Fungal Elicitor to Enhance Taxol Biosynthesis

Four methods were used to prepare four crude elicitors containing different ingredients from mycelia of fungus F₅: (a) Polysaccharides Acontaining lipids and proteins; (b) Micromolecular polysaccharides Bwithout lipids and proteins; (c) Macromolecular polysaccharides Fwithout lipids and proteins; (d) Polysaccharides Hcontaining proteins but no lipids. The crude preparation Bhad the highest ability to induce taxol biosynthesis among other preparations did. The crude preparation Bwas through Sephadex G15 column to separate two compositions: BⅠ whose molecular weight was over 1500 Dand BⅡ whose molecular weight between 700～ 1500 D. The BⅡ activity to induce taxol biosynthesis was 2.3 times higher than that of the crude preparation B, while BⅠ hadn't the activity to induce taxol biosynthesis. By analysis of PALactivity induced by elicitors, we conclude that the changes of PALactivity could be regarded as a useful physiological indicator to select the effective elicitor.