...In another study published this month in the online journal bioRXiv, though not yet peer-reviewed, researchers sequenced genomes from three different mushroom species and found the cluster of psilocybin-producing genes in each. The way the small cluster apparently traveled between species, without alteration, suggests that it was passed through a peculiar process called horizontal gene transfer. In this process, a gene can literally move between different species by physical contact, Sherman explains. This transfer could have happened when, for example, a spore of a psilocybin-producing mushroom physically landed on top of another mushrooms species, and was incorporated into its genome, Sherman says. Because the gene cluster is so small, it can be absorbed and then passed on.
Sherman says horizontal gene transfer of psilocybin-producing genetic bits still happens and will likely enable more mushrooms to produce this psychedelic compound....
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