MSU Researchers Discover New Chemical Pathways in Mushrooms

Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) recently discovered small genes inside the death cap mushroom that produce toxic enzymes. The discovery could eventually lead to the production of new pharmaceuticals.

According to excerpts from the article:

Alpha-amanitin is the poison of the death cap mushroom, Amanita phalloides. The Michigan State University plant biology research associate was looking for a big gene that makes a big enzyme that produces alpha-amanitin, since that’s how other fungi produce similar compounds. But after years of defeat, she and her team called in the big guns -- new technology that sequences DNA about as fast as a death cap mushroom can kill.

The results: The discovery of remarkably small genes that produce the toxin -- a unique pathway previously unknown in fungi.

The discovery is reported in today’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It is work that not only solves a mystery of how some mushrooms make the toxin -- but also sheds light on the underlying biochemical machinery. It might be possible one day to harness the mushroom genes to make novel chemicals that would be useful as new drugs.

“We think we have a factory that spits out lots of little sequences to make chemicals in Amanita mushrooms,” said Jonathan Walton, MSU plant biology professor who leads Hallen’s team. “Our work indicates that these mushrooms have evolved a mechanism to make dozens or even hundreds of new, previously unknown chemicals, besides the toxins that we know about.”

Read the entire article here.