Largest Diversity Study of Psilocybin Investigated Evolution of Psychoactive Psilocybin Production

I am honored to have been involved in this research. A monumental undertaking. Congratulations to the authors on such an extraordinary achievement. We are all indebted to you for helping see deeper into the evolution of Psilocybe mushrooms and psilocybin! 

“We set out to improve the phylogeny of Psilocybe using shotgun sequencing of fungarium specimens, from which we obtained 71 metagenomes including from 23 types, and conducting phylogenomic analysis of 2,983 single-copy gene families to generate a fully supported phylogeny. Molecular clock analysis suggests the stem lineage of Psilocybe arose ~67 mya and diversified ~56 mya. We also show that psilocybin biosynthesis first arose in Psilocybe, with 4 to 5 possible horizontal transfers to other mushrooms between 40 and 9 mya. Moreover, predicted orthologs of the psilocybin biosynthetic genes revealed two distinct gene orders within the biosynthetic gene cluster that corresponds to a deep split within the genus, possibly a signature of two independent acquisitions of the cluster within Psilocybe.”

Learn more: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1030823 

: Psilocybe azurescens by Paul Stamets