Magic mushrooms: New African species sheds light on the history of the famous fungus

Magic mushrooms: New African species sheds light on the history of the famous fungus

Magic mushrooms: New African species sheds light on the history of the famous fungus

Read this story aloud

Listen to the clean text version of this article

Ready
1 min listen
Audio reading is not supported on this browser.

Africa is one of the most biodiverse continents, and yet it is the most under-sampled for fungal diversity, due in part to a historical sampling bias of fungi from other parts of the world

“Magic mushrooms” are consumed recreationally and for medicinal purposes around the world. These fungi gained their fame as “magic” because they produce chemical compounds (called psilocybin and psilocin) which have psychedelic effects

The most famous species of these mushrooms, due to their global distribution and ease of cultivation, is Psilocybe cubensis, known primarily from its preferred habitat of dung-laden fields. It was first described in Cuba, but is found throughout the world.
However, there has been a long-standing question about its evolutionary history. Where did it originate, and how did it move around the globe?
We described a new species of magic mushroom in South Africa and Zimbabwe, now named Psilocybe ochraceocentrata, which has allowed us to investigate this question.
Our disciplines are mycology (the study of fungi) and evolutionary biology. In a recent paper, we report on what P. ochraceocentrata may tell us about the possible wild origins of Psilocybe cubensis.
Our findings used sophisticated methods to test whether P. cubensis could have arrived in the Americas along with European colonisation and cattle, a long-standing hypothesis proposed by the Mexican mycologist and ethnomycologist Gastón Guzmán. We also investigated other possible scenarios, such as dispersal by environmental factors like wind, or ancient biological means such as large herbivore or insect migration.

Latest Stories

• DCI arrests man accused of conning job seekers Sh8.6 million in fake KDF, NPS and PSC recruitment scam
• Wajir begins construction of Baitulmaal Level 4 Hospital to expand access to healthcare
• The world has the science to transform food systems: The next frontier is scaling it
• Nigeria demands probe after two citizens killed in South Africa amid rising xenophobia concerns

Before this study, P. ochraceocentrata was already regularly collected. But it was assumed either to be P. cubensis or P. natalensis, sold under the name “Natal Super Strength”.
We have created a framework of unambiguous identification. Ultimately, our work does not fully resolve the evolutionary history question. But it provides a guide for future study to fully understand where these fungi evolved and how they may have travelled the world.
Knowing the origin of a species is important as it explains how historical, geological and climate factors shape the current distribution of life on Earth. This can be important for understanding how some traits evolved in response to their environment, where a species may become invasive, or possibly where to look for closely related species with traits of interest for medicinal research.

How was the study performed?

Fieldwork conducted over decades in Zimbabwe by researcher Cathy Sharp, and further observations in South Africa, yielded multiple collections of mushrooms similar to P. cubensis. All were associated with the dung of herbivores, including animals native to Africa. Some Psilocybe mushrooms use dung as a food source.
Our work showed that these “cubensis look-a-likes” were superficially similar but differed microscopically and at a molecular level. We chose to investigate this relationship further. Our approach involved:

This allowed us to study the natural history of P. cubensis and its close relative Psilocybe ochraceocentrata.
We found that P. ochraceocentrata and P. cubensis may have had a common ancestor living about 1.56 million years ago.
This corresponds with the global expansion of grasslands and the distribution of grazing herbivores. The world at this time would have been populated with migrating herbivores. Coprophilic fungi (fungi that grow on animal dung) could have moved with them globally and then begun to evolve along independent paths.

Origin story

To complement our taxonomic and dating investigations, we wanted to see if we could find a plausible origin of P. cubensis. In previous studies, the lead author had identified that the closest relatives of P. cubensis all had native distributions across the Asian continent. There was very little overlap with species from the Americas.
With the addition of P. ochraceocentrata as the sister taxon (the closest relative), it became far more reasonable to suggest its evolutionary history is centred in Africa or Asia, not the Americas.
To test this, we used publicly available data from the popular public “citizen science” repository for biodiversity monitoring, iNaturalist. We then used mathematical modelling to hypothesise where these organisms might have occurred hundreds of thousands to millions of years ago.
Our work showed a lot of variability across time, but partially favoured tropical and subtropical regions where large animals roamed. From this, we proposed a few scenarios of how P. cubensis split from the ancestor it shared with P. ochraceocentrata and became globally dispersed.
One theory is a natural disturbance via unknown animal or environmental vectors. In other words, something may have changed the environment and disrupted the population. For example, dung beetles could have eaten dung that had fungal spores in it, and could have crossed the ocean, taking the fungus with them. Or the spores may have been carried across the ocean on the wind. This is known to have happened with other fungi, such as Podospora.
Another possibility is migration via the Bering land bridge between Eurasia and the Americas. This is how many plants and animals moved between the continents.
Guzmán proposed that P. cubensis likely originated in Africa and was transported to the Americas via cattle transport during the colonisation events of the 1400s and 1500s. Our work suggests that this route was also possible.
The most likely scenario would be multiple introductions and spore dispersal between populations in the Americas to retain genetic diversity.

What’s missing

Other Topics To Read

Africa is one of the most biodiverse continents, and yet it is the most under-sampled for fungal diversity, due in part to a historical sampling bias of fungi from other parts of the world.
When it comes to Psilocybe, fewer than ten species are officially described from the African continent. Worldwide, about 165 species are known.
Further studies are needed across the continent to describe and map local fungal diversity and improve on current knowledge. Knowing more about the mushrooms that occur in a region tells us more about the ecology of the area, which is key to conservation efforts.
Natural history museums and herbariums were critical for this work and serve as an immeasurable biodiversity resource representing hundreds of years of scientific effort that both scientists and the general public can access.

The Conversation

Breyten Van der Merwe, PhD student, Stellenbosch University and Alexander Bradshaw, Postdoc, mycologist and evolutionary biologist, Clark University
Advertisement
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Top Stories Today

• Man arrested over Sh8.6 million fake KDF, police jobs scam
• Saba Saba organisers notify police of peaceful march to Parliament
• Wajir expands healthcare with new Baitulmaal Level 4 Hospital project
• Why scaling innovation is the missing link in global food security
• Abuja warns of diplomatic fallout after killing of Nigerians in South Africa
• Kenya’s Stephen Yiembe lands historic UEFA Super Cup officiating role

`;
}

return “;
}

function commentActionsMarkup(comment, canComment) {
const likeLabel = comment.liked_by_me ? ‘Liked’ : ‘Like’;
const likeCount = Number(comment.like_count || 0) > 0
? “
: ”;

const likeButton = canComment && comment.status === ‘approved’
? “
: “;

const replyButton = canComment && comment.status === ‘approved’
? “
: ”;

return `

`;
}

function commentMarkup(comment, canComment, isReply = false) {
const pendingBadge = comment.status && comment.status !== ‘approved’
? “
: ”;

const edited = comment.is_edited
? “
: ”;

const repliesHtml = Array.isArray(comment.replies) && comment.replies.length
? `

`
: “;

return `

`;
}

function replyFormMarkup(commentId) {
return `

`;
}

function setNotice(widget, message, type = ‘info’) {
const notice = widget.querySelector(‘[data-role=”notice”]’);
if (!notice) return;

if (!message) {
notice.hidden = true;
notice.textContent = ”;
notice.classList.remove(‘is-error’);
return;
}

notice.hidden = false;
notice.textContent = message;
notice.classList.toggle(‘is-error’, type === ‘error’);
}

function setCount(widget, total) {
const count = widget.querySelector(‘[data-role=”count”]’);
if (!count) return;

const num = Number(total || 0);
count.textContent = num === 1 ? ‘1 comment’ : `${num} comments`;
}

function openReplyBox(widget, commentId) {
widget.querySelectorAll(‘[data-role=”reply-box”]’).forEach(box => {
box.hidden = true;
box.innerHTML = ”;
});

const targetItem = widget.querySelector(`.ev-comments__item[data-comment-id=”${commentId}”]`);
if (!targetItem) return;

const replyBox = targetItem.querySelector(‘[data-role=”reply-box”]’);
if (!replyBox) return;

replyBox.hidden = false;
replyBox.innerHTML = replyFormMarkup(commentId);

const textarea = replyBox.querySelector(‘textarea’);
if (textarea) textarea.focus();
}

function closeReplyBox(container) {
if (!container) return;
container.hidden = true;
container.innerHTML = ”;
}

async function initCommentsWidget(widget) {
const state = {
articleId: Number(widget.dataset.articleId),
loadUrl: widget.dataset.loadUrl,
storeUrl: widget.dataset.storeUrl,
commentsBaseUrl: widget.dataset.commentsBaseUrl,
canComment: widget.dataset.canComment === ‘1’,
page: 1,
perPage: 10,
sort: ‘newest’,
total: 0,
hasMore: false,
busy: false
};

const list = widget.querySelector(‘[data-role=”list”]’);
const loading = widget.querySelector(‘[data-role=”loading”]’);
const empty = widget.querySelector(‘[data-role=”empty”]’);
const loadMoreBtn = widget.querySelector(‘[data-role=”load-more”]’);
const sortSelect = widget.querySelector(‘[data-role=”sort”]’);
const composerForm = widget.querySelector(‘[data-role=”composer-form”]’);

async function loadComments(reset = true) {
if (state.busy) return;

state.busy = true;
setNotice(widget, ”);
loading.hidden = false;

if (reset) {
state.page = 1;
list.innerHTML = ”;
empty.hidden = true;
}

try {
const url = new URL(state.loadUrl, window.location.origin);
url.searchParams.set(‘page’, state.page);
url.searchParams.set(‘per_page’, state.perPage);
url.searchParams.set(‘sort’, state.sort);

const response = await requestJson(url.toString(), {
method: ‘GET’,
headers: {
‘Accept’: ‘application/json’,
‘X-Requested-With’: ‘XMLHttpRequest’
}
});

const items = Array.isArray(response.data) ? response.data : [];
const meta = response.meta || {};

state.total = Number(meta.total || 0);
state.hasMore = !!meta.has_more;

setCount(widget, state.total);

if (reset) {
list.innerHTML = ”;
}

if (!items.length && reset) {
empty.hidden = false;
} else {
empty.hidden = true;
list.insertAdjacentHTML(
‘beforeend’,
items.map(item => commentMarkup(item, state.canComment, false)).join(”)
);
}

loadMoreBtn.hidden = !state.hasMore;
} catch (error) {
if (!list.children.length) {
empty.hidden = false;
empty.textContent = ‘Unable to load comments right now.’;
}
setNotice(widget, error.message || ‘Unable to load comments.’, ‘error’);
} finally {
loading.hidden = true;
state.busy = false;
}
}

async function submitTopLevelComment(form) {
const textarea = form.querySelector(‘textarea[name=”content”]’);
const button = form.querySelector(‘[data-role=”submit-comment”]’);

if (!textarea) return;

const content = textarea.value.trim();
if (!content) return;

const originalText = button ? button.textContent : ”;

try {
if (button) {
button.disabled = true;
button.textContent = ‘Posting…’;
}

const response = await requestJson(state.storeUrl, {
method: ‘POST’,
headers: buildJsonHeaders(),
body: JSON.stringify({
article_id: state.articleId,
content: content,
source_url: window.location.href
})
});

textarea.value = ”;

if (response?.data) {
list.insertAdjacentHTML(
‘afterbegin’,
commentMarkup(response.data, state.canComment, false)
);
empty.hidden = true;

if ((response.data.status || ”) === ‘approved’) {
state.total += 1;
setCount(widget, state.total);
}
}

setNotice(widget, response.message || ‘Comment posted successfully.’);
} catch (error) {
setNotice(widget, error.message || ‘Unable to post comment.’, ‘error’);
} finally {
if (button) {
button.disabled = false;
button.textContent = originalText || ‘Post comment’;
}
}
}

async function submitReply(form) {
const commentId = Number(form.dataset.commentId || 0);
const textarea = form.querySelector(‘textarea[name=”content”]’);
const button = form.querySelector(‘.ev-comments__reply-submit’);

if (!commentId || !textarea) return;

const content = textarea.value.trim();
if (!content) return;

const originalText = button ? button.textContent : ”;

try {
if (button) {
button.disabled = true;
button.textContent = ‘Posting…’;
}

const response = await requestJson(`${state.commentsBaseUrl}/${commentId}/reply`, {
method: ‘POST’,
headers: buildJsonHeaders(),
body: JSON.stringify({
article_id: state.articleId,
content: content,
source_url: window.location.href
})
});

if (response?.data) {
const parentItem = widget.querySelector(`.ev-comments__item[data-comment-id=”${commentId}”]`);
if (parentItem) {
const repliesWrap = parentItem.querySelector(‘.ev-comments__replies’);
if (repliesWrap) {
repliesWrap.insertAdjacentHTML(
‘beforeend’,
commentMarkup(response.data, state.canComment, true)
);
}
}
}

closeReplyBox(form.closest(‘[data-role=”reply-box”]’));
setNotice(widget, response.message || ‘Reply posted successfully.’);
} catch (error) {
setNotice(widget, error.message || ‘Unable to post reply.’, ‘error’);
} finally {
if (button) {
button.disabled = false;
button.textContent = originalText || ‘Post reply’;
}
}
}

async function toggleLike(button) {
const commentId = Number(button.dataset.commentId || 0);
if (!commentId) return;

const originalHtml = button.innerHTML;

try {
button.disabled = true;
button.innerHTML = ‘Working…’;

const response = await requestJson(`${state.commentsBaseUrl}/${commentId}/like`, {
method: ‘POST’,
headers: buildJsonHeaders(),
body: JSON.stringify({})
});

const liked = !!response?.data?.liked;
const likeCount = Number(response?.data?.like_count || 0);

button.classList.toggle(‘is-liked’, liked);
button.innerHTML = `${liked ? ‘Liked’ : ‘Like’} ${likeCount > 0 ? “ : ”}`;
} catch (error) {
button.innerHTML = originalHtml;
setNotice(widget, error.message || ‘Unable to update like.’, ‘error’);
} finally {
button.disabled = false;
}
}

if (composerForm) {
composerForm.addEventListener(‘submit’, function (e) {
e.preventDefault();
submitTopLevelComment(composerForm);
});
}

if (sortSelect) {
sortSelect.addEventListener(‘change’, function () {
state.sort = this.value || ‘newest’;
loadComments(true);
});
}

if (loadMoreBtn) {
loadMoreBtn.addEventListener(‘click’, function () {
if (state.busy || !state.hasMore) return;
state.page += 1;
loadComments(false);
});
}

widget.addEventListener(‘click’, function (e) {
const likeBtn = e.target.closest(‘[data-action=”toggle-like”]’);
if (likeBtn) {
e.preventDefault();
toggleLike(likeBtn);
return;
}

const replyBtn = e.target.closest(‘[data-action=”toggle-reply”]’);
if (replyBtn) {
e.preventDefault();
openReplyBox(widget, Number(replyBtn.dataset.commentId || 0));
return;
}

const cancelReplyBtn = e.target.closest(‘[data-action=”cancel-reply”]’);
if (cancelReplyBtn) {
e.preventDefault();
closeReplyBox(cancelReplyBtn.closest(‘[data-role=”reply-box”]’));
}
});

widget.addEventListener(‘submit’, function (e) {
const replyForm = e.target.closest(‘.ev-comments__reply-form’);
if (replyForm) {
e.preventDefault();
submitReply(replyForm);
}
});

loadComments(true);
}

document.addEventListener(‘DOMContentLoaded’, function () {
document.querySelectorAll(‘.ev-comments’).forEach(initCommentsWidget);
});
})();

Trending

Quiet revolution behind foldable smartphones and why they’re making a comebackTechnology
|Margaret Wanjiru
|17 hours ago

Nigeria demands probe after two citizens killed in South Africa amid rising xenophobia concernsAfrica
|Rachael Mutabasi
|4 hours ago

Clean mobility gains ground in trucks and buses, but fossil fuels still dominate at 94 per cent – reportClimate Change
|Alfred Onyango
|1 day ago

Lilian Odira targets personal best and Diamond League final after dream victory in EugeneAthletics
|Erick Kariuki
|7 hours ago

DCI arrests man accused of conning job seekers Sh8.6 million in fake KDF, NPS and PSC recruitment scamNational
|Abdirahman Khalif
|3 hours ago

Nyaribari Chache MP Zaheer Jhanda summoned as police widen probe into Kisii political violenceNews
|Lucy Mumbi
|15 hours ago

Stephen Yiembe makes history as first Kenyan referee appointed for UEFA Super CupFootball
|Erick Kariuki
|5 hours ago

Nairobi restaurant gunpoint robbery renews calls for tougher security measuresCity Affairs
|Rachael Mutabasi
|5 hours ago

The world has the science to transform food systems: The next frontier is scaling itClimate Change
|The Conversation
|4 hours ago

A Super El Niño is coming: Five hard‑won lessons the world can learn from AfricaClimate Change
|The Conversation
|9 hours ago