What is psilocybin for?
Scientists have found out why hallucinogenic mushrooms need their hallucinogens
Ksenia Malysheva, Naked Science
The psychoactive component of hallucinogenic mushrooms, psilocybin, is synthesized in mushrooms from psilocin, which, in turn, is their secondary metabolite, i.e. it is formed during the vital activity of mushrooms, but does not participate in their metabolism in the future. Psilocin is produced by about 200 species of different, often genetically quite distant from each other, fungi. Scientists have long considered this fact to be evidence that the genes encoding psilocin precursors were transmitted from species to species as a result of horizontal gene transfer, and not from ancestor to descendant. This is evidenced by the geography of the growth of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Sequencing the genomes of several species of hallucinogenic mushrooms and comparing them with the sequence of genes of mushrooms that do not produce psilocin, scientists from Ohio State University have identified a cluster of five genes responsible for the production of the substance. The nature of the distribution of this gene cluster indicated that for the first time these genes appeared in fungi that feed on decaying wood, and then spread to species that receive nutrients mainly from animal droppings.
These results, in turn, allowed scientists to make an assumption about the role of psilocin and its derivatives. In the human body, psilocybin acts on a number of serotonin receptors, causing strong visual, auditory and mixed hallucinations, a feeling of euphoria and many other effects. However, humans and vertebrates in general were hardly the "target audience" of psilocin-producing fungi. Most likely, the authors of the work suggest, psilocybin changes the behavior (for example, suppresses appetite) of mycophages and competitors of fungi living in the same place where mushrooms grow in some beneficial way for fungi. It is worth noting that the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms makes a person forget about hunger for a long time.
The discovery of biologists from Ohio has not only theoretical significance, but also practical. Knowing the set of genes that fungi need to produce psilocin, biochemists may be able to develop new psilocybin analogues in the future that can be used in medicine. Now in Western countries, the possibilities of psilocybin as an active ingredient of drugs for the treatment of depression are being actively studied. Recently, we wrote about how controlled psilocybin intake helped alleviate the symptoms of severe depression in people who were not helped by other medications.
The study is published in the journal Evolution Letters (Reynolds et al., Horizontal gene cluster transfer increased hallucinogenic mushroom diversity).
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