Reynolds Hannah T, Vijayakumar Vinod, Gluck-Thaler Emile, Korotkin Hailee Brynn, Matheny Patrick Brandon, Slot Jason C
Department of Plant Pathology The Ohio State University 2021 Coffey Road Columbus Ohio 43210.
Department of Biological & Environmental Sciences Western Connecticut State University 181 White St. Danbury Connecticut 06810-6826.
Evol Lett. 2018 Feb 27;2(2):88-101. doi: 10.1002/evl3.42. eCollection 2018 Apr.
Secondary metabolites are a heterogeneous class of chemicals that often mediate interactions between species. The tryptophan-derived secondary metabolite, psilocin, is a serotonin receptor agonist that induces altered states of consciousness. A phylogenetically disjunct group of mushroom-forming fungi in the Agaricales produce the psilocin prodrug, psilocybin. Spotty phylogenetic distributions of fungal compounds are sometimes explained by horizontal transfer of metabolic gene clusters among unrelated fungi with overlapping niches. We report the discovery of a psilocybin gene cluster in three hallucinogenic mushroom genomes, and evidence for its horizontal transfer between fungal lineages. Patterns of gene distribution and transmission suggest that synthesis of psilocybin may have provided a fitness advantage in the dung and late wood-decay fungal niches, which may serve as reservoirs of fungal indole-based metabolites that alter behavior of mycophagous and wood-eating invertebrates. These hallucinogenic mushroom genomes will serve as models in neurochemical ecology, advancing the (bio)prospecting and synthetic biology of novel neuropharmaceuticals.
次级代谢产物是一类异质化学物质，常介导物种间的相互作用。色氨酸衍生的次级代谢产物——裸盖菇素，是一种血清素受体激动剂，可诱导意识状态改变。伞菌目中一组系统发育上不连续的形成蘑菇的真菌产生裸盖菇素前体药物——裸盖菇碱。真菌化合物的零散系统发育分布有时可通过代谢基因簇在生态位重叠的不相关真菌之间的水平转移来解释。我们报告了在三个致幻蘑菇基因组中发现裸盖菇碱基因簇，以及其在真菌谱系间水平转移的证据。基因分布和传递模式表明，裸盖菇碱的合成可能在粪便和晚期木材腐朽真菌生态位中提供了适应性优势，这些生态位可能是基于吲哚的真菌代谢产物的储存库，可改变食菌和食木无脊椎动物的行为。这些致幻蘑菇基因组将作为神经化学生态学的模型，推动新型神经药物的（生物）勘探和合成生物学发展。
