Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:
The fungus from which LSD was first synthesized has finally been observed and described by researchers who suspected a fuzz inside the seed coats of morning glory plants.
Now known as Periglandula clandestina, this fungal symbiote that coexists with morning glories was so difficult to find because it lives inside the plant as opposed to its Periglandula relatives which live on the outsides of plants and are more easily observable.
In the future, P. clandestine could lead to new and more powerful pharmaceuticals that treat migraines and neurodegenerative conditions.
In 1963, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann discovered what gave morning glories psychoactive properties, the lysergic acid amides that would later lead him to (accidentally) create LSD.
Hofmann already knew about a mind-altering hallucinogen in morning glories that had been used in Mesoamerican religious rituals since ancient times. Seeing these chemicals in a plant was unexpected, since they are usually associated with fungi. The morning glory fungus eluded him. Finding it would prove to be a trip.
Morning glories (Convolvulaceae) are known for having symbiotic relationships with fungi that produce ergot alkaloids. These are the mycotoxins from which some hallucinogens, along with powerful medications for conditions such as dementia and migraines are derived. Many of the fungi that produce these substances belong to the family Clavicipitaceae.
While many species of morning glories have been found to contain ergot alkaloids, their fungal symbionts have not always been observed easily. Clavicipitaceae are often detected through DNA or their disappearance when a plant is treated with fungicide.
Researchers Corinne Hazel and Daniel Panaccione of West Virginia University knew of evidence for a psychotropic fungus in morning glories. The seed-borne fungus is a Clavicipitaceous genus known as Periglandula, and lives in symbiosis with the morning glory species Ipomoea tricolor, but had never been described further.
“The presence of ergot alkaloids in I. tricolor was associated with [genetic] sequences of an undescribed fungus of the family Clavicipitaceae,” Hazel and Panaccione said in a study recently published in Mycologia. “Further evidence of a fungal symbiont of I. tricolor included suppression of ergot alkaloid synthesis through treatment with [a] fungicide.”
The researchers sought to isolate the fungus and sequence its genome so they could finally describe it. Plant tissues were magnified up to 200 times to search for visible signs of mycelium. Hyphae are the filaments in mycelium which branch out and connect networks of mushrooms underground and make up that dreaded white fuzz seen on moldy bread. Some of morning glory tissues were stained so the mycelium would be easier to identify, and other tissues were given nutrients to promote fungal growth.
Because Clavicipitaceae live in seeds, DNA from was also extracted from morning glory seed coats. Hazel knew she was onto something when she spotted white fuzz growing insides of sed coats and suspected fungi.
When scientists sequenced the genome of the fungus was sequenced, they found a previously undescribed species of Periglandula. Hazel named it Periglandula clandestina because of how it hides itself within the morning glory plant, which separates it from the other known Periglandula species that grow on the outside of the plant and are not as secretive. Ergot alkaloids were found throughout the plants. They are even present in the roots, where there was no evidence of P. clandestina DNA.
The most common alkaloid found in the plants was lysergic acid alpha-hydroxyethylamide (LAH). This alkaloid is one of the lysergic acid amides Hofman identified in his studies. LSD aside, the discovery of the fungus it is synthesized from could open opportunities for significant pharmaceutical discoveries in the future.
“Because P. clandestina produces exceptionally high quantities of ergot alkaloids, the genes in its ergot alkaloid biosynthesis pathway may be a resource for engineering model organisms to overproduce pharmaceutically relevant ergot alkaloids,” said Hazel and Panaccione.
The discovery that flowered from a suspicion about fuzz on a seed coat is almost as accidental as the discovery of a substance that will forever be associated with the undulating rainbows of ‘60s psychedelia, the Beatles’ iconic “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” and even cult pop culture icons like Futurama’s Hypnotoad.
Even Hoffman himself is quoted as saying, “I did not choose LSD. LSD found and called me.”
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