We performed a conformational and electronic analysis for 10-deacetylbaccatin-III (DBAC) using well-known semiempirical methods (parametric method 3 (PM3) and Zerner's intermediate neglect of differential overlap (ZINDO)) coupled to the concepts of total and local density of states (LDOS). Our results indicate that regions presented by paclitaxel (Taxol(R)) as important for the biological activity can be traced out by the electronic features present in DBAC. These molecules differ only by a phenylisoserine side chain. Compared to paclitaxel, DBAC has a simpler structure in terms of molecular size and number of degrees of freedom (d.f.). This makes DBAC a good candidate for a preliminary investigation of the taxoid family. Our results question the importance of the oxetane group, which seems to be consistent with recent experimental data. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.2115770