Weizmann scientists engineer a single plant to produce five psychedelic compounds

Scientists at Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science have worked out, step by step, how plants make the psychedelic compound DMT and have used that knowledge to engineer a single plant that produces five different psychedelic substances. The study, published in Science Advances and announced by the institute on June 24, 2026, was led by Dr. Paula (Shirley) Berman while she was in Prof. Asaph Aharoni's laboratory in the Plant and Environmental Sciences Department. Berman now leads her own group at Israel's Agricultural Research Organization (Volcani Institute).

DMT is the active ingredient of ayahuasca, a traditional Amazonian brew. Scientists knew the general chemical route plants use to make it, but not the specific genes and enzymes involved. The Weizmann team identified each of them and then inserted the genes into Nicotiana benthamiana, a fast-growing relative of tobacco widely used in plant research. Within days the plant began producing DMT.

The researchers then went further, adding the genetic pathways for psilocybin and psilocin, the active compounds of so-called magic mushrooms, and for bufotenin and 5-MeO-DMT, which are found in the venom of the Sonoran Desert toad. The result was one plant making psychedelics that in nature come from three different kingdoms of life. With help from Prof. Sarel Fleishman and Dr. Olga Khersonsky, who used computational protein design, the team changed a single amino acid in one enzyme and boosted production of 5-MeO-DMT about 40-fold. They found that combining several pathways makes them compete for the same starting material, a bottleneck future work will need to solve. Adding bacterial enzymes also produced new chlorine- and bromine-containing versions of these molecules, some of which showed antidepressant-like effects in early tests. Researchers from the Volcani Institute and the Technion also took part.

All five compounds are built from the amino acid tryptophan and act on the same brain receptors as serotonin. Psychedelics are being studied around the world as possible treatments for depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction, and a reliable plant-based production system could make research supplies easier to obtain.