Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science have engineered Nicotiana benthamiana, a fast-growing relative of tobacco, to produce five different psychedelic compounds. 

The achievement, detailed in a study published in Science Advances, brings together biosynthetic pathways that nature distributes across three different kingdoms of life.

The five compounds (DMT, psilocybin, psilocin, bufotenin, and 5-MeO-DMT) are typically sourced from an Amazonian shrub, mushrooms, and the defensive skin glands of a desert toad. Extracting even one of these molecules from its natural source is a slow process. Producing all five in a single, easily cultivated plant had not been achieved before.

A Shared Chemical Ancestor

Despite coming from such different sources, all five of these molecules share a common origin: tryptophan, an amino acid found in every living thing. In humans, tryptophan is the building block for serotonin, which helps explain why these psychedelics interact with serotonin receptors in the brain. This shared chemistry gave the Weizmann team, led by Dr. Paula Berman and Prof. Asaph Aharoni, a logical starting point for their experiments.

The team began by focusing on DMT to address a previously unresolved question. Researchers knew the general biochemical pathway plants use to synthesize DMT, but they had not yet identified all the genes and enzymes responsible for each step. “At the heart of the study was the challenge of making DMT,” Aharoni says.

To identify the necessary genes, the team analyzed genetic material from the Amazonian chacruna shrub and an Australian acacia species. Introducing these genes into Nicotiana benthamiana allowed the plant to produce DMT within days.

Fixing a Bottleneck With One Amino Acid

The researchers applied the same gene transfer approach to the other four psychedelics, but the engineered plants initially produced only trace amounts of 5-MeO-DMT. Protein-design specialists Prof. Sarel Fleishman and Dr. Olga Khersonsky determined that the limitation was due to a poor molecular fit in one enzyme’s active site. Replacing a single amino acid resolved the issue.

“We mutated one amino acid in the sequence and got a 40-fold increase in the production of 5-MeO-DMT,” Berman says.

One Organism, Three Kingdoms

Once all five biosynthetic pathways were functioning separately, the researchers combined them within a single plant. The result was a tobacco relative capable of producing DMT from plants, psilocin and psilocybin from fungi, and bufotenin and 5-MeO-DMT from toads, all at the same time. “In effect, we created a kind of biological ‘cocktail’ — not by mixing substances externally, but by combining the underlying pathways inside one organism,” Aharoni says.

Combining all five pathways reduced the yield of each compound, as they competed for the same pool of tryptophan. The researchers also introduced bacterial enzymes to attach chlorine and bromine atoms to the psychedelic molecules, creating modified psychedelic molecules that do not naturally occur in the engineered plant. Some similar modified molecules have shown antidepressant-like effects in previous studies.

Why the Compounds Exist in the First Place

The bottleneck also highlighted a broader research question about the natural role of these compounds. These molecules likely function as defenses or as tools for interacting with microbes and insects in the organisms that produce them, rather than evolving to affect human consciousness.

“If we can move these pathways into a model plant that grows quickly and is easy to manipulate, we can start asking what these compounds actually do for the plant,” Berman explains.

A Sustainable Supply Line

There is a clear practical benefit to this approach. Plants used for ayahuasca are increasingly threatened by habitat loss and rising demand, and the Sonoran Desert toad is declining due to overcollection and habitat destruction. A fast-growing laboratory plant capable of producing these compounds within a week provides an alternative that does not rely on harvesting wild species.

The Weizmann researchers are now working on a plant that can produce the complete ayahuasca mixture, which includes both DMT and the compound required for it to be active when taken orally. They are also exploring whether these psychedelics could be produced in edible plants capable of delivering carefully regulated doses.

Whether this platform becomes a practical manufacturing system will depend on overcoming the metabolic bottleneck that currently limits production when multiple pathways operate simultaneously.

Austin Burgess is a writer and researcher with a background in sales, marketing, and data analytics. He holds an MBA, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and a data analytics certification. His work focuses on breaking scientific developments, with an emphasis on emerging biology, cognitive neuroscience, and archaeological discoveries.

A growing body of evidence suggests that leaving Earth may do far more than challenge the human body. According to a new study, the absence of gravity itself could temporarily reshape consciousness, loosening the brain’s most strongly ingrained assumptions and opening the door to altered perceptions, expanded awareness, and even experiences that resemble some aspects of psychedelic states.

As humanity prepares for longer stays on the Moon, commercial space tourism, and eventual missions to Mars, researchers contend that understanding what happens to the mind in microgravity may be just as important as understanding the engineering that gets astronauts there. According to them, gravity may not simply keep people anchored to the ground—it may also help anchor human consciousness itself.

In a new paper published in Frontiers in Psychology, researchers Dr. Annahita Nezami and Dr. Elisa Raffaella Ferre of Birkbeck, University of London, explored decades of neuroscience, psychology, and spaceflight research to propose that Earth’s gravitational pull acts as a deeply embedded “super-prior” within the brain. By disrupting this ancient reference point, microgravity may trigger widespread changes across neural networks that underpin perception, self-awareness, and emotional regulation.

“Human consciousness has evolved under the constant pull of terrestrial gravity, yet its role in shaping perception and awareness has received limited theoretical attention,” researchers write. “As spaceflight transitions from short missions to long-duration habitation, understanding how consciousness responds to non-terrestrial gravity becomes increasingly urgent.”

Every human brain evolved under the constant force of Earth’s gravity. From before birth onward, sensory systems constantly rely on gravity cues to determine which way is up, where the body is in space, and how to interpret movement.

Researchers argue that this constant exposure has made gravity one of the brain’s most reliable assumptions. In the language of predictive neuroscience, the brain constantly generates expectations about the world and updates them using incoming sensory information. Gravity, they say, functions as a basic expectation—a “1G super-prior”—that helps stabilize consciousness.

Remove that constant, and things begin to change.

In orbit, vestibular signals from the inner ear become unreliable. Visual, proprioceptive, and balance information no longer align as the brain evolved to expect. The resulting mismatch generates anticipation errors, forcing widespread recalibration.

Those changes are already well documented among astronauts. Space travelers commonly experience spatial disorientation, altered body perception, sleep disturbances, mood swings, and, in some cases, feelings of depersonalization or derealization—states in which individuals feel separated from themselves or perceive their surroundings as unreal.

Astronauts have also reported more positive and profound experiences. Many describe feeling “unmoored,” “expanded,” and deeply interconnected with humanity, or overwhelmed by awe while viewing Earth from orbit. This phenomenon, known as the Overview Effect, has been associated with lasting shifts in values, increased environmental concern, and enhanced feelings of oneness.

The study suggests that these experiences might originate from the same neurocognitive processes triggered when gravity’s stabilizing role is weakened.

“By perturbing the most stable embodied reference – gravity itself – spaceflight offers a rare window into how fundamental expectations shape consciousness,” researchers write. “The loosening of perceptual boundaries in microgravity has been proposed as a neurocognitive foundation for the Overview Effect.”

Brain imaging studies lend support to the idea. MRI scans of astronauts before and after extended-duration missions have revealed structural changes, including fluid redistribution, enlargement of brain ventricles, and gray matter remodeling. Functional MRI studies have also found changes in connectivity among vestibular, sensory, and default mode network regions involved in awareness and the combining of internal and external information.

Especially intriguing are changes observed in the default mode network, a system involved in introspection, self-referential thought, and consciousness. Activity inside this network appears to diminish after spaceflight, with some changes persisting for months after astronauts return to Earth.

Electroencephalography studies have likewise detected reductions in alpha-wave activity during and after missions, another sign that brain function is being reorganized in response to microgravity.

These neural changes led the researchers to an unexpected comparison.

Many of the same large-scale patterns recorded after spaceflight resemble effects previously documented under psychedelic compounds such as psilocybin and LSD. In both situations, highly organized brain networks appear to loosen, while communication between previously separate regions increases.

Researchers stress that the mechanisms are entirely different. Psychedelics act through serotonin receptors, whereas microgravity represents an environmental disruption rather than a pharmacological one. Yet both seem to converge by weakening the brain’s highest-level assumptions and increasing the combination of sensory information.

According to researchers, this convergence phenomenon suggests that spaceflight could provide scientists with a natural, drug-free model for studying transformative states of consciousness.

The researchers argue that terrestrial gravity, microgravity, and psychedelic states may represent different conditions along a spectrum defined by the strength of the brain’s deeply ingrained “1G super-prior.” As that stabilizing role weakens, top-down constraints relax, potentially increasing neuroplasticity and mental flexibility.

The implications go beyond astronaut health. Understanding how consciousness changes in unfamiliar environments may provide new clues to the neural foundations of self-awareness. It could also prove increasingly important as private citizens spend more time in space and human settlements expand away from Earth.

Researchers suggest that microgravity offers scientists something that cannot be replicated on Earth—a chance to observe what happens when one of evolution’s oldest assumptions suddenly disappears.

“By situating consciousness in an environment for which evolution offers no precedent, spaceflight positions microgravity as a powerful natural neurocognitive catalyst for transformative experience,” researchers write. “In stepping beyond Earth’s gravity, we gain a unique vantage point from which to examine the contingent foundations of human awareness and the conditions under which it can be fundamentally transformed.”

Tim McMillan is a retired law enforcement executive, investigative reporter and co-founder of The Debrief. His writing typically focuses on defense, national security, the Intelligence Community and topics related to psychology. You can follow Tim on Twitter: @LtTimMcMillan.  Tim can be reached by email: tim@thedebrief.org or through encrypted email: LtTimMcMillan@protonmail.com