Many efforts have been done by the researchers to culture the fungus extracted from Taxus plants in different mediums but the success rate was less. Hence, the Taxus plants remains the only source for paclitaxel extracts which is important for preparation of Taxol used in diagnosing cancer patients.
There is a growing literature on the synthesis of paclitaxel precursors in bacteria, summarized here: http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2010/September/30091002.asp
http://cen.acs.org/articles/88/i40/Boosting-Taxol-Production.html
There were efforts to make it in yeast, but I think it was too toxic to make in large quantities.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18485776
Thanks! for the quick and fruitful answers. Actually, I was more concern about the success rate of the various attempts in developing alternatives of paclitaxel extracts as the only plant which contains it is the Taxus baccata. The global supply of paclitaxel comes from this plant only. But the plant is already under threat in many parts of the world. It has been listed in negative exports list by CITES. It has been also reported that the current rate of extraction exceeds the sustainable rate. Therefore, there is growing concern for conservation of the plant. If the search for alternatives is not successful then why not we start thinking on the conservation, regeneration and sustainable use of the plant.
Plant cells suspension culture is currently used to produced paclitaxel, mainly by two companies: Phyton Biotech in Germany and Samyang Genex in Korea.
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