Hazel (Corylus avellana L.) as a New Source of Taxol and Taxanes

Taxol is used to treatment of variety cancers including ovarian, breast, lung, head and neck carcinomas and the AIDS-related Karposi’s carcinoma, and was originally obtained from bark of taxus brevifolia. However the amount of extracted taxol from taxus is extremely low and cannot be considered as a suitable commercial source and it has led to studies for finding new sources of Taxol. In 1998, Angela Hoffman and her team reported that hazel could be as a taxol-producing species and it has been confirmed by recent studies. On the other hand, the genes and enzymes involved in taxol biosynthesis pathway in taxus sp. have been identified and characterized but because of very slow growth and difficult somatic embryogenesis, manipulation of taxus is restricted. Instead, hazel with widely contribution in the world, easy invitro culture and characterization of some genes involved in the pathways of MVA and DXP (such as HMGR, IPI and GGPP), makes possibility of manipulation of taxol biosynthesis pathway. In this paper we reviewed a summary of genetic and biotechnology studies on hazel.