Greetings.

If you are refered to the sigma-1 opioid receptor, i will say that they don't have it. But if you do a quick investigation, you'll find more precise info.

hello sir,

i would like to say that there has been no such evidence of existence of sigma-1 receptors in plants yet. it has been a mystery still.

It is a mammalian receptor, but it has 30 % sequence identity and appr. 70% similarity to ERG2 gene product of yeast. This plays a role in Ergosterol biosynthesis.

Dear all, thanks for your replies. I still haven't found any evidence of the existence of this receptor in plants.

My question arises form the fact that certain plants produce n,n-Dimethyltryptamine, an hallucinogenic compound that in humans and rodents binds to the sigma-1 receptor.

Therefore I was wondering why would plants produce such compound that bind to a human receptor but they themselves do not have the receptor for this compound? Of course there might be other receptors in plants that this compound binds to, but I am not sure there is any evidence of this.

Any further thoughts would be much appreciated.

With best regards,

Antonio

Answer to Antonio: plants produce those compounds to defend themselves against organisms that have the appropriate receptors.

Dear Dr. Schultz,

thanks for your reply. Are you aware of any organisms that respond to such compound or that harbour the sigma 1 receptor gene?

Best regards,

Antonio