Ergot Alkaloids and their Hallucinogenic Potential in Morning Glories.

Naturally occurring and semisynthetic ergot alkaloids play a role in health care or as recreational drugs in Western and indigenous Mexican societies. Evidence is summarized that ergot alkaloids present in Central American Convolvulaceae like , and are colonized by different species of a newly described clavicipitaceous fungal genus named . The fungi are associated with peltate glandular trichomes on the adaxial leaf surface of its host plants. The fungi are not yet culturable but were demonstrated to have the capacity to synthesize ergot alkaloids. The alkaloids do not remain in the fungal mycelium but are translocated via the glandular trichomes into their plant host. Both fungi and host benefit from a symbiotic lifestyle. In evolutionary terms the alkaloid biosynthetic gene cluster in the symbiosis is likely to have a conserved (basic) structure while biosynthetic ergot gene clusters within the genera and were under ecological selection for alkaloid diversification.