Fungal genetics and biology : FG & B
June 1, 2023
Matthew Meyer, Jason C. Slot
28 citations
Fungi produce diverse metabolites, including psilocybin and related tryptamine-derived compounds called psiloids, which have antimicrobial, antifungal, antifeedant, or psychoactive properties. The high nitrogen allocation to psiloids in mushrooms, along with convergent evolution and horizontal gene transfer, suggests a selective benefit, but no precise ecological roles have been experimentally determined. Structural and functional similarities of psiloids to serotonin, an essential neurotransmitter in animals, indicate they may enhance fungal fitness through interference with serotonergic processes, though other mechanisms have been proposed. This review examines literature on psilocybin ecology and proposes potential adaptive advantages psiloids may confer to fungi.
Int J Drug Policy
March 27, 2012
Brian T Anderson, Beatriz C. Labate, Matthew Meyer et al.
26 citations
No Summary
Oxford University Press eBooks
June 18, 2014
Mariana Ciavatta Pantoja, Matthew Meyer
4 citations
The Kuntanawa, a tribe of the Pano linguistic branch in Brazil's Acre state, were thought extinct by the early 1900s due to rubber production. By the 2000s, descendants of a Kuntanawa woman, previously identified as mestizo rubber tappers, began a process of ethnic self-recognition and territorial struggle. Ritualized ayahuasca use is central to this cultural reinvention, acting as a subjectivity operator and ethnic identifier in interethnic relations. The text offers ethnographic and theoretical reflections on ethnicity and culture.
SSRN Electronic Journal
January 1, 2023
Matthew Meyer, Jason C. Slot
1 citation
No Summary
April 8, 2016
Domingos Bernardo Gialluisi Da Silva Sá, Christian Frenopoulo, Matthew Meyer
1 citation
The chapter reviews a decade of non-policing government monitoring of ayahuasca use in Brazil, where the brew is known as Daime, Santo Daime, or Vegetal. It argues that cost-benefit analysis of drug policy is fundamentally resolved on the cultural level, rejecting a simple mechanistic view like pharmacological determinism. The Uniao do Vegetal (UDV) sees ayahuasca not as an end in itself but as a vehicle in a path of sacrifice and austerity, while it remains an important instrument for achieving spiritual goals for the communities that use it. The chapter advocates for adopting or modifying just public policies directed to drugs, based on this pioneer experience.
Mycologia
October 7, 2025
Scott Ostuni, Pietro Voto, Joshua Birkebak et al.
A new species of fungus, Panaeolus oligotrophus, was discovered in central Florida. It looks similar to Panaeolus cinctulus but grows in nutrient-poor sandy soil, a rare habitat for this genus. Its physical features and DNA were analyzed and compared with other Panaeolus species. The study also found that the type specimen of Panaeolus pumilus is actually the same species as P. cinctulus. Additionally, another species, Crucispora rhombisperma, was reclassified into the genus Panaeolus and renamed Panaeolus rhombispermus because of its unusual spore shape. The potential for psilocybin production in the new species was checked by sequencing its genome.
Libra
April 24, 2014
Matthew Meyer
Alto Santo, the first Santo Daime center in Brazil, was established by Raimundo Irineu Serra in the 1930s in Rio Branco, Acre, as a novel development in Amazonian emigrant ayahuasca use. Based on 15 months of fieldwork between 2002 and 2007, the dissertation argues that Irineu Serra acted as a Brazilian "big man," mediating relations with local officials, international esoteric groups, and Christianized forest spirits to create a "house" (casa) where ayahuasca, rebaptized as Daime, was made suitable for civilized use. Daimistas at Alto Santo view the later adoption of Santo Daime by countercultural southern Brazilians as a usurpation that risks profaning ayahuasca by association with drugs.