UC Berkeley

Unlike animals, plants and fungi are largely sessile, and can not move to protect themselves from natural enemies. Instead, they produce a suite of secondary metabolites, ranging from caffeine in coffee, to psilocybin in magic mushrooms, to the spice in chili peppers. Humans have long exploited such compounds for medical use. However, little work has been devoted to understanding the role such secondary chemistry plays in the natural environment. Here, we explore the medical and ecological role of secondary metabolites of a notorious fungus, the death cap mushroom, Amanita phalloides. We first synthesize the medical research, digging deeper into the molecular mechanisms of treatments for amatoxin poisoning, and use these mechanisms to evaluate some of the conflicting medical advice surrounding amatoxin treatment. We then present an extraction protocol that saves time, reduces equipment contamination, and minimizes risk to the researcher. The impact of this faster, safer method may help produce these important toxins faster, for both research and medical use. We also examine toxin levels across several scales in California. Levels of alpha-amanitin are on the high end of published European values, indicating that either this invasive species underwent a genetic bottleneck from an area of Europe with high toxin levels, or A. phalloides may be under active selection to increase toxin levels in its introduced range.