This breakthrough marks a powerful convergence of ancient botanical wisdom and modern science, showing how plants can be tapped more sustainably for life-saving medicine. For decades, the chemotherapy drug Taxol—used to treat breast, ovarian, lung, and other aggressive cancers—was derived from the bark of the Pacific yew tree.

But harvesting Taxol in this way kills the tree, posing a major ecological and supply challenge since yews grow slowly and live for centuries. In recent years, scientists discovered that a precursor chemical called baccatin III, which can be chemically converted into Taxol, is produced in the tree’s needles and can be harvested without harming the plant.

Still, the process remained expensive and inefficient. The solution lay in identifying and transferring the genes responsible for producing baccatin III into more manageable organisms like other plants or microbes.

In a new study published in Nature, researchers have mapped the full 17-gene pathway that yew trees use to synthesize baccatin III. By introducing these genes into tobacco plants—a species often used in genetic studies—they were able to coax the plants into producing baccatin III at levels comparable to those in yew needles.

This represents a major advance in plant synthetic biology. The researchers achieved this by using a novel strategy: they stressed yew needles with various triggers like salts, hormones, and bacteria to boost baccatin III production, then sequenced over 17,000 individual cells to identify genes that were activated together under these conditions. This approach led to the discovery of eight previously unknown genes involved in the process, including one called FoTO1, which significantly increased precursor yields.

Although the modified tobacco plants produced baccatin III successfully, this method has limitations. The inserted genes aren’t inherited by future generations, meaning each plant must be engineered anew. A more scalable approach would be to insert these genes into microbes like yeast or bacteria, which are already used in pharmaceutical production and can be grown easily in large quantities.

Encouragingly, a separate research team recently identified the final two missing enzymes needed to convert baccatin III all the way to Taxol. Combining these discoveries now makes it theoretically possible to produce Taxol from scratch in engineered microbes—potentially eliminating the need for yew trees altogether.

This work is more than a win for cancer treatment. It represents a broader shift in how we think about plant-based medicines. For thousands of years, traditional medicine systems have used plants for healing, often with great success but little understanding of the biochemical mechanisms involved. Now, with powerful tools like single-cell sequencing, synthetic biology, and gene mapping, scientists can begin to unravel the molecular recipes behind nature’s pharmacy.

This could not only safeguard the environment by reducing reliance on endangered plant species, but also lower costs and expand access to vital drugs around the world. As one of the researchers put it, Taxol has long been the “holy grail” of plant biosynthesis—and this study brings that goal within reach.

By Impact Lab