If you ’ve ever foraged for mushrooms , you might know that form check the psychoactive compoundpsilocybindiffer greatly in sizing , shape , and color . This can make the task of divide “ magic ” mushrooms from their mundane ( or poisonous)look - alikesquite difficult .
Indeed , there are an estimated 1,147 genus ofmushroom - forming fungi , and only 11 distantly related mathematical group are bonk to give rise the serotonin - mimic hallucinogen . So how did distinct mushroom evolve to contain the same chemical ?
Their study , bring out inEvolution Letters , compared the entire genome sequences of three distantly related psilocybin species to the genomes of tight link up non - hallucinogenic relatives .
The analytic thinking evidence that all three mintage check a single bunch of five genes that were responsible for psilocybin product , and the sequences for the genes were very like . Given the complexness of the biochemical mental process required for fungus to make psilocin , it is pretty improbable that these gene just happened toevolve independently multiple prison term .
Rather , the authors present grounds that after one original species began producing psilocin , the cistron cluster was disseminate to others through the genetic Gallic kiss that is HGT ; wherein lump of DNA jump from one being to another during a second of impermanent cell - to - cell contact . Occurring mostly in simple organisms like bacteria and virus , HGT allows genic mutations to skip into newfangled species – sometimes to their benefit and sometimes to their detriment .
Because the psilocybin mushroom metal money have similar lifestyles within the ecosystem – they all grow in damp soil and feed by break up either dead Sir Henry Wood or muck – an adjustment acquired in one species would be helpful to the rest . And given that the power to synthesise psilocybin has popped up in hundreds of specie and hang on for millennium , it must be a real blessing to mushroom-shaped cloud survival .
“ We speculate that mushrooms acquire to be hallucinogenic because it lowered the opportunity of the fungi getting eat by insects , ” said tether author Dr Jason Slot in astatement .
organism that are at risk of being eaten often adapt chemic defense team molecules , call junior-grade metabolite , that make them poisonous or unpalatable . But instead of kill or repelling their would - be predators as plants do , “ these mushrooms are altering the worm ’ ‘ creative thinker ’ – if they have judgment – to meet their own demand , ” said Dr Slot .
What an insect experiences during a mushroom head trip is by all odds a field of study for another day , but one screw side effect is areduction in appetite . regrettably for mushrooms , the same deterrent did not work too well for man . Despite the risk of exposure of utmost sickness , people have been seeking out magic mushrooms for least3,500 years .
