Scientists Engineered a Bacterium That Poops Out Huge Amounts of Psilocybin
Scientists have found a new way to harvest psilocybin, the psychedelic compound typically found in mushrooms. They've engineered bacteria to produce psilocybin in their cells and poop it out, in gram-scale concentrations that are higher than any other bioengineered organism to date.
It is, the researchers say, a significant step towards demonstrating the feasibility of industrial-scale production of the drug.
Psilocybin is found in over 200 fungus species, and has long enjoyed a reputation for its psychedelic and hallucinogenic properties. In recent years, however, it has become increasingly evident that psychedelic drugs also have serious potential for treating conditions such as treatment-resistant depression.
But mass-producing the compound from mushrooms would require a lot of time, and a lot of space to grow the fungi. So a team of biochemists led by Andrew Jones and Alexandra Adams of Miami University decided to try something else - metabolic engineering.
This is a biosynthesis process that relies on changing cells so they will produce compounds they don't naturally produce, or in quantities they don't naturally produce; one example of this is bioethanol, which can be used as biofuel.
A popular bacterium for this purpose is Escherichia coli, since it is easy to engineer, prolific, well understood and has a large and versatile array of genetic tools available for engineering. So, this is what the team used as their host.
They introduced psilocybin-producing genes from the quintessential 'magic mushroom' Psilocybe cubensis into the bacterium, to see if that would induce the microbes to produce psilocybin. It worked, with varying levels of success. ...