New magic mushroom discovery could reveal how to make your own
One of the most surprising findings is the simplicity of the process, says David Sherman, a medicinal chemist at the University of Michigan who wasn’t involved in the paper. In only five steps, the mushroom’s enzymes convert tryptophan, a widely occurring amino acid (a building block of protein) into psilocybin.
In a study published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, Dirk Hoffmeister and colleagues sequenced and mapped the genes in the “magic” mushroom Psilocybe cubensis. Scientists have known for a while that these genes produce several enzymes that combine to create psilocybin, but nobody knew the sequence and order of this seemingly mystical process. Through a series of trial-and-error type tests, Hoffmeister and colleagues figured out the correct order. “There was some Wow! in the air” when the team finally figured it out,” says Hoffmeister, with the University of Jena in Germany … The paper could pave the way for people without advanced knowledge to produce psilocybin on their own, using commercially available synthetic biology kits, Sherman says.
Original Article (Newsweek):
New Magic Mushroom Discoverty Could Reveal How to Make your Own
Artwork Fair Use: Lex vB
