Mycology Education (rebroadcast)
Big Picture Science
00:00
What Does Sillasibin Do for Fungi?
The ability to produce sillasibin passed between different species of mushrooms by what's called horizontal gean transfer. The suite of geans needed to produce the lesibin stayed intact, suggesting that it served a purpose. It wasn't just some chemical by product accumulating in some metabolic backwater. And what it did for these mushrooms is hard to say. One possibility is that it served as a deterrent to insect pests and that insects who ate these oms would become distracted or have their minds taken off their next meal. But there are many species of insects that live quite happily on magic mushrooms. So if it as deterrent, it doesn't seem to be very effective. Another possibility is that
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