This post contains two updates, (i) a part on the hallucinogenic species in the Northern Territory, and (ii) how to set the mood for fungal reproduction. There was some media attention after the last blog post. It was refreshing to see how many people are interested in fungi, not just magic mushrooms. Thank you to all who have volunteered time to help the project, this means a lot. I looked for names to apply to the species in Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks in case something was a clear match. No name can be applied with 100% confidence, however, when Gaston Guzman described Psilocybe brunneocystidiata from PNG, he hypothesised it would be a close relative of P. yungensis, which was described as a wood decomposer from Bolivia. Is it a coincidence that the mushroom from the NT was sister to P. yungensis in the exact relationship the most prolific Psilocybe-taxonomist predicted for P. brunneocystidiata? We may never know for certain whether this name could be accurately applied to the taxon in Kakadu, but it is a starting point considering we don't have the fungus in hand. I have received emails aplenty of magic mushrooms occurring in the NT, including in Kakadu. Some of these we might suspect are Panaeolus cyanescens (based on their described appearance and their niche in buffalo dung). If anyone from the Mirarr people know about traditional use of mushrooms and they have knowledge that is appropriate to share, we should get in touch. One last point, a new species in taxonomy is one that does not have a binomial Latin name. I accept hypotheses of a clock-like rate of speciation (in which species are approximately 500,000 – 5 million years old), technically there are no 'new' species unless humans have caused selection pressure or new pathways for outbreeding/hybridisation. To say something is a 'new species' is taxonomic jargon for 'let's give this thing a name so we can improve communication'. If you have watched some of my recent seminars (aren't you lucky), you'll have your finger on the pulse with the mating (MAT) genes annotated from the assemblies of P. subaeruginosa. By chance, the population I sampled has a perfect distribution of MAT alleles so that I can confirm our predictions about mating from the genomes. Basidiomycota (mushrooms, smuts, and rusts) have homeodomain genes (usually two of them close together on one chromosome) and pheromone/receptor genes used for mate recognition and signalling. These genes will become useful when we study whether P. cubensis and P. subaeruginosa are native to Australia because we expect a lot of diversity at homeodomain genes in natural populations. Generally opposites attract for sexual reproduction and two haploid fungi must differ at their MAT loci for a compatible cross. If they must differ at both HD and P/R loci, mating is controlled by two loci and different MAT alleles are needed (tetrapolar mating). If fungi only need to differ at their HD locus for a compatible cross, or the HD and P/R loci are closely linked (usually by proximity), only one locus controls compatibility (bipolar mating). Tetrapolar mating is useful for fungi that cannot move long distances because it reduces the chances of inbreeding. Psilocybe subaeruginosa has three P/R loci, each of which segregated in our population. Now we need to work out which of these is controlling compatibility. Here are my predictions for the crosses in the image below based on what we know from the genome. Successful mating will be 8x5 and 8x6, the rest probably will be incompatible.
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Designer Shrooms @ Funky Fungus on 1st July 2023
I started a gig at Funky Fungus as Chief Scientific Officer to make designer shrooms Our research on Psilocybe
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