Magic mushrooms invent active compound twice

A new study shows that different types of mushrooms use completely different methods to produce the psychoactive substance psilocybin

25-Sep-2025 - A German-Austrian team led by Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Leibniz-HKI has been able to biochemically demonstrate for the first time that different types of mushrooms produce the same mind-altering active substance, psilocybin, in different ways. Both Psilocybe mushrooms and fiber cap ...

Learning from Nature: How a fungus makes a hard job easier

Researchers analyze a fungal biosynthetic pathway and discover a capable enzyme

26-Jan-2024 - The investigation of the biosynthesis of panepoxydone, an important substance for biomedical research, in basidiomycetes has revealed a new enzyme as an important catalyst. The results of the researchers from the Leibniz-HKI, the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Cluster of Excellence ...

Learning from Nature: How a fungus makes a hard job easier

Researchers analyze a fungal biosynthetic pathway and discover a capable enzyme

19-Dec-2023 - The investigation of the biosynthesis of panepoxydone, an important substance for biomedical research, in basidiomycetes has revealed a new enzyme as an important catalyst. The results of the researchers from the Leibniz-HKI, the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Cluster of Excellence ...

Bacterial toxin renders algae motionless

Team of biologists and chemists discover the mode of action of a bacterial toxin

05-Jan-2023 - Biologists and chemists at the University of Jena decipher properties of a bacterial toxin that renders the unicellular green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii motionless. The toxin appears to hijak the calcium channels of the target algae, causing a rapid influx of calcium ions that within one ...

Artificial intelligence helps to find new natural substances

New method enables fast and confident identification of previously unknown small molecules

18-Oct-2021 - More than a third of all medicines available today are based on active substances from nature and a research team from the University of Jena has developed a procedure to identify small active substance molecules much more quickly and easily. Secondary natural substances that occur in numerous ...

Bacterial toxin blinds algae

Chemical “fingerprints” reveal the “murder weapon”

18-Aug-2021 - University of Jena researchers have discovered a bacterial toxin that destroys the colour pigments in the eyespot of the single-cell green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Together with another toxic substance, the bacteria of the species Pseudomonas protegens not only disorientate and immobilise ...

Water bacteria have a green thumb

Newly discovered species of bacteria produce bioactive natural substances

16-Jun-2020 - The sheer endless expanses of the oceans are hostile deserts — at least from the perspective of a bacterium living in water. Tiny as it is, its chances of finding sufficient nutrients in the great mass of water would seem to be vanishingly small. However, as in other deserts, there are ...

Frankincense reprograms inflammatory enzyme

Change of direction in immune defence

13-May-2020 - A research team from the University of Jena and Louisiana State University (USA) has clarified the molecular mechanism behind the anti-inflammatory effect of a natural product from frankincense resin. The enzyme 5-lipoxygenase plays a key role here: the natural product reprograms the normally ...

Fungus produces highly effective surfactant

26-Jun-2019 - Mortierella alpina lives in the soil and likes to keep cool. This fungus, which belongs to the zygomycetes, grows best at temperatures of 10 to 15°C and occurs mainly in alpine or arctic habitats. In biotechnology, the fungus has been used for the large-scale production of polyunsaturated fatty ...

When Proteins Shake Hands

Materials scientists create innovative nanomaterial from natural substances

21-Feb-2018 - Be it in spider silk, wood, the spaces between body cells, in tendons, or as a natural sealant for small wounds: protein fibres are found virtually everywhere in nature. These small protein fibres, also referred to as protein nanofibres by experts, often have outstanding properties such as a high ...