Talk:Alpha-amanitin
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Article Grading: The following comments were left by the quality and importance raters: (edit · refresh)
In light our recent work on the biosynthesis of amatoxins and phallotoxins, perhaps someone more familiar with Wikipedia entries/edits could change the amanitin entry to indicate that these compounds are NOT "nonribosomal" peptides but are, in fact, ribosomally synthesized. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Nov 19 Gene family encoding the major toxins of lethal Amanita mushrooms. Hallen HE, Luo H, Scott-Craig JS, Walton JD. Also, the structures as drawn are kind of funky, with those big circular loops. We have structures drawn for the PNAS article that at least attempt to show approximately correct bond angles and distances. I don't know about copyright issues between PNAS and Wikipedia, but we would be glad to redraw them to better specs.
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I could not find any references regarding the hallucinogenic properies of alpha-amanitin. On the other hand, another species of Amanita, the fly mushroom (A. muscaria) is a well-known hallucinogen (but this is not due to amanitins, which this species does not contain; rather it is due to ibotenic acid and muscimol). Could there be a confusion here? We certainly do not want hallucinogen enthusiasts to try and consume A. phalloides. Tjunier 10:02, 20 December 2005 (UTC)
- For one, Wikipedia should not be a key or a means of identification for hallucinogen enthusiasts. I is an encyclopedia, leave the latter for a website like Erowid. Second of all, who said anything about alpha-amanitin having hallucinogenic properties? It has no hallucinogenic properties, it is an Amatoxin and nothing more. I believe the psychedelic in Amanita muscaria, at least the most outstanding one, would be Muscimol.--Neur0X .talk 13:21, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Image
I think that the (line) image here, while very illustrative of how alpha-amanitin is cyclic, is a bit confusing, and makes some groups (more specifically, methylene groups) hard to see. I'm going to revert to the previous image, which is quite clear. Jesse 20:57, 30 August 2006 (UTC)
- I uploaded a second version that shows methylene groups on the major rings. Do not revert - the old image is inaccurate as it doesn't show the phenolic —OH group. Bryn C (t/c) 22:46, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 16:23, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Evolutionary purpose of amanitins
I am rather intrigued by the amanitins and their evolutionary purpose. Could someone explain what this might be? If the fungi produce them to deter predators from eating them why are they so slow acting? A toxin that takes over a week to take effect would seem a poor deterrent. Possibly they have another role? Either way, their must be a reason for their production as it would seem unlikely that the fungi would expend energy synthesising them for no reason. Booshank 19:17, 3 December 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Screening Method to Prevent Poisoning?
A few years ago I read of people in Russia who were desperate for food took the known risk of mushroom poisoning and suffered death. What I see written in this article seems to focus on the initial site of poisoning, leading to death in humans. Has anyone considered coming up with an insect (like crickets, roaches, or ants) that could be subjected to a mushrooom extract for screening. Since those insects do not have livers or kidneys, but do have RNA polymerase, it seems there could be some time line of toxic effects, but the extraction procedure would have to be easy for the indivdual to perform. It just seems something should be worked out to prevent further avoidable tragedy.
71.114.183.105 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 21:53, 5 December 2007 (UTC)
