Publication Scientists Create new 5 in 1 Entheogen

[The_Forestsmith]

Tobacco plant altered to produce five psychedelic drugs

Genetically engineering tobacco plants could enable a more sustainable production method for psychedelic drugs, which are increasingly in demand for research and medical uses

www.newscientist.com

Hey all, I saw the article above and wanted to share it here.

 

[blig-blug]

The paper it's talking about is being discussed here: Science paper - Complete biosynthesis of psychedelic tryptamines from three kingdoms in plants

This is unfortunate:

Plants could easily be altered permanently with changes that become inheritable, but doing so could be problematic, given that the compounds produced are commonly used as recreational drugs, says Aharoni. “It’s a little bit tricky if we have it inherited, and then people will ask for seeds,” he says. “We can do it also in tomato, potato, corn.”

Yeah they are right that people would ask for seeds!

 

[The_Forestsmith]

oh thanks Blig, I didnt notice it had already been posted.

 

[blig-blug]

No problem, the article you posted is a much easier read to get the gist of it than the original paper, for those of us that don't know that much about chemistry

 

[Transform]

No problem, the article you posted is a much easier read to get the gist of it than the original paper, for those of us that don't know that much about chemistry

This also seems to suggest that either it isn't a prank, or that New Scientist is in on the same prank, given the publication date…

 

[Transform]

Might as well tack on another psychedelics-relevant article from the same issue:

Michael Pollan: 'Consciousness is really under siege'

A psychedelic experience set author Michael Pollan on a quest to understand consciousness in his new book A World Appears. He tells Olivia Goldhill what he learned – and how it changed him

www.newscientist.com

I'll resist making a similar connection as before between the date and the qualifications of food author Pollan in writing this article…

 

[doubledog]

Interesting results, but such high variety of tryptamines in one plant seems somehow suspicious.
Moreover, for medical industry, synthetic molecules would be preferred as I believe tryptamines are not difficult to synthetize.

 

[Transform]

Interesting results, but such high variety of tryptamines in one plant seems somehow suspicious.
Moreover, for medical industry, synthetic molecules would be preferred as I believe tryptamines are not difficult to synthetize.

Are they not implying that they've modified several different plants, each to make only one of the target compounds? I mean, except for DMT potentially being a common intermediate for the other four, if tryptamine alone doesn't fulfill that role.

 

[doubledog]

That's possible, maybe I did not understand it correctly.

 

[blig-blug]

Maybe saying it's for the industry is just a way to get funding. Same with adding an aspect related to "AI" in other fields even when the research has nothing to do with it.

 

[doubledog]

Reminds me of a time when almost every book had to start with some "wise" words of Lenin.
Some things do not change.

 

[WallyG]

Are they not implying that they've modified several different plants, each to make only one of the target compounds?

That's the way I read it. But I want me some of those DMT tomato seeds.

 

[Mitakuye Oyasin]

Here is the article I saw. Same basic info. Scientists Engineered a Plant to Produce 5 Different Psychedelics at Once

 

[Transform]

OK, I had another read and they do really claim to have produce all five alkaloids in the same plants contemporaneously:

Scientists have engineered tobacco plants to produce five powerful psychedelic compounds normally found in other plants, fungi and animals in a single crop.

 

[blig-blug]

OK, I had another read and they do really claim to have produce all five alkaloids in the same plants contemporaneously:

I'm still not sure, couldn't it be "a single crop" where the "crop" is "tobacco", but not the same individual plant?

 

[DetritusTheEgo]

OK, I had another read and they do really claim to have produce all five alkaloids in the same plants contemporaneously:

I read and came to the same conclusion. They did each compound separately and discuss the combinations that caused an increase / decrease in each, then they did all five in 'the same N. benthamiana plant' and overview the loses of each compound due to the combination. Particular quoted segment:

Simultaneous production of five cross-kingdom natural psychedelics in plants
To demonstrate the potential of pathway integration as proof of concept and investigate flux through shared intermediates, we next explored the feasibility of simultaneously producing all five natural tertiary indolethylamines within the same N. benthamiana plant by overexpressing the most active genes from each pathway, namely, AroG, PvTDC2, PvNMT1, PsiH, PsiK, PsiM, OsCYP71P1, RmNMT, and AtCOMTA160G. One-week postinfiltration, all five targeted tertiary indolethylamines were detected.