Student discovers fungus predicted by Albert Hoffman

Summary

Corinne Hazel, a WVU environmental microbiology major from Delaware, Ohio, has discovered a new species of fungus that may treat a variety of medical conditions. (WVU Photo/Brian Persinger) Making a discovery with the potential for innovative applications in pharmaceutical development, a West Virginia University microbiology student has found a long sought-after fungus that produces effects similar to the semisynthetic drug LSD, which is used to treat conditions like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction. Corinne Hazel, of Delaware, Ohio, an environmental microbiology major and Goldwater Scholar, discovered the new species of fungus growing in morning glory plants and named it Periglandula clandestina. Hazel made the discovery while working in the lab with Daniel Panaccione, Davis-Michael Professor of Plant and Soil Sciences at the WVU Davis College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. She was studying how morning glories disperse protective chemicals called “ergot alkaloids” through their roots when she saw evidence of a fungus. “We had a ton of plants lying around and they had these tiny little seed coats,” she said. “We noticed a little bit of fuzz in the seed coat. That was our fungus.” The researchers prepared a DNA sample and sent it away for genome sequencing, funded by a WVU Davis College Student Enhancement Grant obtained by Hazel. The sequencing confirmed the discovery of a new species and the sequence is now deposited in a gene bank with her name on it. “Sequencing a genome is a significant thing,” Panaccione said. “It’s amazing for a student.” Morning glory plants live in symbiosis with fungi that produce the same ergot alkaloids the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann modified when he invented LSD in the late 1930s. Hofmann hypothesized that a fungus in morning glories produced alkaloids similar to those in LSD, but the species remained a mystery until Hazel and Panaccione’s discovery. They published their findings in Mycologia. “Morning gl...