Mushrooms in Mexico with Laura Guzman Davalos
Alisa Nappa
Laura Guzmán-Dávalos is the most famous woman Mexican mycologist working since 1983 at University of Guadalajara in Jalisco State. Laura is a well-respected mycologist in Mexico and daughter of the world-renowned Gaston Guzman, THE world authority on the genus Psilocybe (and who described and named more than half of the species).
We talk all about her work throughout the years on many genera of fungi including Gymnopilus,Deconica,Entoloma,Ganoderma,Helvella,Pluteus,Psilocybe,and Scleroderma,her life growing up with Gaston, her students work, and the many amazing projects she is working on.
TRANSCRIPT
0:19 You're listening to the mushroom revival podcast. We have another amazing episode coming to your eardrums all about mushrooms we have an amazing guest on louder and we have our translator eat Eddie. This episode is going to be a little bit different we're we're going to speak in Spanish and also in English and everyone can laugh at how terrible my my Spanish is. 0:43 So the invenio So Laura comer says oh la mobian Alex, which is gracias por la metarhizium si si in English How did you first get into mushrooms and in Spanish como de intellisoft Stay por primera vez in the song goes when ornamental flavors Enya por que con me Popol. Save Nikolova percent prey to Worrell ASEAN con la song goes, it is the movie Nene Yanase of our CollectA el campo CMOS Majesco socialist con la songs it was in I was a child because my dad on mycology so since I was a kid, he go to the forest and we have a relationship with fungi cuz he go to pick mushrooms and we go with him. 1:35 That doesn't beset us to their yellow here pencils to their key Mica. I'm going to talk in English. 1:41 My 1:43 ideology is my mother was a chemistry. And so I was thinking to study chemistry because I want to I was not a very good time with my father. So I wanted to study another thing and so I choose chemistry. So it was until I had two exams that the day after. And I was studying for the two of exams, one of why geology and one of chemistry. When I realized that I didn't want to study chemistry, but biologists so I used to the geology. And then I didn't want to study mushrooms because again I want to come up with Eddie dibala contra amoeba, so instead of my father, 2:34 so rebel with my father, so I wanted to do the conifers plant. And then at last I realized that I like mushrooms so that it was logic that I used to the mycology went first by geology and then mycology. But it was a long way until I realized that I had to study to be a mycologist and an English What was it like having Gastone Guzman as your father and for people who are tuning in, maybe new to mushrooms, Gaston Guzman is one of the most famous mycologists in Mexico. So in Spanish come off we Tanner Gastone Guzman como padre? Well, at first when I was a child, it was genius. Because it was very interesting. I love to go to the forest to pick up more drums. So as a father, when I was a child, it was very good. 3:36 Then when I started to study by geologists, he was very excision very strict. So it was very difficult. And then I was almost all the time on there the shadow of my father as mycologist. So it was very difficult for me at the beginning, then I started gaining my name, my my own path, my my young name, and 4:06 it was very nice to have a father. I'm very useful to have very good teacher. He taught me many many things about mycology. So it was very good. But it was like in one line very difficult and they're all They're very easy. I'm very good to have a father like my father. 4:29 And in English, are there any other of your family members interested in mushrooms as much as you and your father have gone on from membre de tu familia stay interesado en los hongos tanto como tu, e tu, Padre? 4:46 No, not really. No. I have two sisters. One is preschooler teacher and she also study better here. I don't know in English. For Kids. She has a kinder 5:00 Got a then he said the director of our kindergarten and the other is an artist. So now I'm the only one who follows my father. So he was very, very happy that I followed his his steps, or mycology, what would you say was the best memory that you had with your dad involving mushrooms I know that you've, you know, done research together, obviously, he was very happy that you're into mushrooms. And I'm sure any dad is happy that their kid is is interested in the same things qualify it may hurt or required though, okay to be stay calm to Papa relates you another conversation goes. I think that maybe I've had many, many good memories. But one of I remember is that when I was active when I went to his lab, to work in his lab, because I only take the pens and put together and play with his things. But I remember those memories are very good for me because I feel very important. Another memory is that he asked me to help him to review manuscripts. I was still very young, like maybe 14 years old or younger. And I helped him to review the manuscripts. I read the manuscript for him. And he, for example, I read the proof gallery, the proof of the manuscripts and keep correcting. So for me, I felt very important to do that. And now there was to go to the field to collect mushrooms. And sometimes we went only for a picnic or like a hole in holidays, but he always found mushrooms. So it was very interesting to see how he was excited to find more rooms. And another maybe was one very dry simply to found him in the because he lived in another city. We don't meet the weather very often. So it was very nice to found him in the Congress in the myco logical meetings. So it was very exciting when we found in the Congress, for example, in the street on the meeting rooms. It was very emotive emotive service. Very, very nice to see my father at the same time my teacher for excellence 7:53 and can you talk about your research with psilocybin mushrooms? I know you've done a lot with psilocybin so I'm interested to hear from you all the things that you've done with psilocybin and are currently doing what is a blood surprise to investor your Shawn somebody looks on goes they see this he Bina? See they see no see why not MSL through Jump Assembler in spaniel? And me Baba, and then candidacy la CV. L is OCM prayer taxonomy Yatra ECNL comme si la CB, e u m. PESA ser, a studio Sophie la Kenya concealer serie al principio era muy dificil trabajar con el or kale nonton via muy bien que la fille. Lucania como se ASEAN loss analysis. And those cuando jolla presenta Lasar Wallace. If you look in Atticus El militaris, yeah, okay, we interessante pero esta spicier Ketola Rakhee Ebola aka yesterday Ultra the Akela pass up on entrepreneurs delta is your no no 9:02 loss analysis Elena see no further more were losses basis, the acordo como tepee and Cisco central as soon as Yeah, so when I started to work with psilocybin mushrooms were with my father. But my father made traditional taxonomy and I make phylogenetics. So sometimes when I was with my father, it was like, well, he told me put this one on this and you can, you know, like Ford it like that. And I was like, no, no, no, it's not like that, because the analysis shows another thing. And for my father, maybe it was so difficult that to understand. It took a while to my father to understand that the fuel in netiquette relationships were the very different with molecular data and things that he found with morphology. But at last I think that he was 10:00 Not happy 10:05 I think we've ever solved. But at least he understood what's happening with the genius. And at least was happy that for example, not in Silo City, but in scleroderma. The groups that he the sections of the genius that he established with morphology was recovered with molecular data. He was very happy with that. But he was very unhappy to know that a scleroderma was inside the ball wallet, Tallis who was very, very young, happy he and he never believed that he was not you're crazy, it can be possible. That is colored my was inside bullet assay. But with Siloso up when we start doing the phylogenetic work. Then with Kenya Ramirez crews started doing her doctoral degree here with me. She study silos up first with my father. And then he started doing the doctoral studies here. And she's a very good expert in both in the morphology and in molecular phylogeny. So she's very good at doing those. So we continue with that work with Regina, and we're continuing with this work. And now I am very interested also with medicinal properties of isoleucine so I'm interested with a micro ptosis I'm not doing research about micro doses but we are doing interviews with users of micro doses to see what is the use of the micro doses here in Mexico because they are many not many but that there are studies in for example in USA or in Canada, but not in Mexico. is incredible that here the place of the homosexuals and there we don't have studies of the game. So we were starting doing something about that in your life what has been the most exciting mushroom research that you have done interview that qual cedar line this year shown somebody ongoing mass emotion non thick a real these other realities other 12:43 Plasma TV and this manually do mean Venus's is more mellow pero RS has come up with me there's a sparrow in turn says creo que cuando and pajetta Sir trabajos de la Kenya, the barrios grupos Yonkos. And basic on human copy loose guessing shamrock Emma's ATRA Hello vis LMS three I love O'Connell doctorado e assembler says to use their fellow hernia In contrast, a linear nos whether that is informacion sobre la relazione. As in Lausanne goes as Omar Gustavo mucho es por la sarin diferentes group or see our Carlos alunos que tenemos la paz krokus Ido algo muy interesante Mazoon aunty para me. So I think when I started to make motion works, I started with him the pillows, and I make phylogenetic studies. So found the relationships between the mushrooms is one of the most things that I like and now I can do it with students and with the people that are into mushrooms is one of the things that I really love to make. This is a really hard question. 13:57 But do you have a favorite mushroom is when pregunta no mas facil pero penicillin? ongo fabretto is a very difficult to answer. 14:08 I have many, many, many. I was thinking well, what is my favorite mushrooms? I don't know. Maybe from their microscopic point of view him not be loose. I love it. Because it has a wonderful basidiospores Very beautiful stevia. So the microscopic futures of the monopolists are wonderful. But the mushrooms are not very nice. So they're microscopic is very good. From the macroscopic point of view, maybe they make crops aliotta I love tiny micro salutaris and also the microscopy so when they have the can in this podium, I love it. But also I liked a lot to find in the field. 15:00 whereas if or 15:02 any place philosophers Palace i love Palace, so, I don't know, maybe a lot of I love mushrooms in general and what has been your favorite place in the world to study mushrooms and why call as SIBO to levar fabretto in El mundo para estudiar hongos II por que? Well in general, Mexico there are many places that I love it. Since I was a child, Laguna says Impala, a place near to Mexico City. That because coniferous forests with obvious fear forests, I love the Barbados in the Spanish is the Latin name of fear, I think in English. I love that for us. So when I was a child, I love to go there with my father to collect Muslims. I have noticed steady moves from from Laguna as Impala but I love the place. I study mushroom skiing Jalisco. And in Jalisco, there are many nice places, especially the mesophytic forests. For example, in San Sebastian, the Loise, they or there is a relic forests with maple that is very nice. I have a species of Gianopulos that maybe some new species is very similar to him, not below speakers. But we think that is going to be a new species. And maybe we are going to talk the domain name, it'll pick us because it's this forest is in the Municipio have talpa the agenda, so we maybe are going to name it because of that place. But just in general places with coniferous forest. I love it. 17:02 And what has been the hardest time in your research? Has there ever been a time where you wanted to give up quite as well, momentum mass DDC, into investigation? Conan goes? Well, maybe not exactly related with a academic personnel difficulty. It was when I had cancer, for cancer. So it was at that time very difficult for me to continue to do my research, because I was very tired. So I work a lot at that time, because the work was like my medicine at that time. But at the same time, I couldn't do a lot of work in mycology, because I didn't have the brain to do that. So I dedicate more to at that time I was coordinating doctoral program. So I dedicate most to the doctoral program with administrative work instead of mycology. So it was not very nice to, to live their psychological work at that time. For example, I was writing at that time, a paper about a new species of creepy datos that I already had sent to mycology before I got sick, then I got sick. And the paper was published four years later. So I had a delayed parenthesis in my work, or at least have four or five years because of the treatment for the sake. So it was very difficult for me at that time. And are you completely healed? 19:07 Commerce etc. And spaniel 19:10 Kodava sister could ever have not really want to get cancer is very difficult to say that you are healed. Sometimes the person say that it's heal, then the cancer returns and then they die. 19:29 To say that you are not kill and do keep seeing the doctor and follow the sickness because otherwise you can be very confident and then do don't realize that the cancer has returned. So I have a medicine. I've had chemotherapy, radiotherapy and chemotherapy medicine that I took. And that is medicine. I finished the toolkit two months ago. 20:00 After 10 years of taking this medicine, but I see the doctor every six months, so I prefer to do that, instead of saying that I am killed. 20:13 But otherwise, like cancer, it was a gift to me. Because now I see the life with the other eyes, I treat my students better. 20:26 I am less square, less rigid, less. 20:32 J so it was it was a gift. And you were saying before how? When you were young, it was hard, almost living in a shadow of your dad. What was your experience? Like? In general, being a woman in the mycology field? Come up with to experiencia siendo Moorhead in El Campo de la myco La Jolla. 21:02 Either No, in my home, my parents did my series and I the same way there were no difference between girls and boys. There were no difference. So I grew up 21:20 feeling that all were the same. So I didn't have many difference between woman maybe sometimes I was discriminated for example, when I went to give a talk the person that present me at the same time, my husband and I were to give a lecture. So the person that invited us to that very different my husband than me, because I was a woman. So I was like, ah, and Cassie nada la conferencia uppercase double. Mauryan OHara for Canarian. This is another person who Korea makes possible orientado mucho myco. 22:09 I almost gave up to the conference because people prepare my husband for BMS that for me for being a woman. And another thing that I remember being under the shadow of my father was one time that I had to an interview in the TV because of emotional fare here in Guadalajara. And by coincidence in the program before the interview, my husband because of this makes Hisa narratologists and then they interview me both they present me as the daughter of customers man and wife of Eduardo Fanti. Oh, I was like a 23:00 loud I was mad. I was very anxious of that. Yes, well in general No, I have no difference because I'm a woman in general. I think that I have my part because I'm a person no matter if I am a woman or 23:19 what research do you want to see done in the mycology field in the future? Okay in this deviation Lagos Daria that really sada in El Campo they make coal law here in El futuro. 23:39 It's been yours muy muy mala. 23:43 No, it's the Morgan wave. Yeah. 23:46 I think that more research by the medicina utility of Siloso, in particular, for example, to prove in, they really work in micro doses, and all the work in medicinal mushrooms. I'm very interested, I'm not going to do that. But for me, I think that it's very important. Because if the silo CV really works, for example, with depression, mental sickness or something like that, it will be very nice to see that. Also, I would like to see more from or not only one of the angles and medical comfort, those are coladas Yes. 24:33 See your grand total awesome was the magical, gone ilustraciones cbfm. Ian, she wants to really know about if psilocybin or psilocybin mushrooms works for mental lightness, and also she wants to see this big and great book about Mexican mushrooms, a lot of the mushrooms, big photos and a lot of colors and a lot of 25:00 degrade Mexican. 25:02 And maybe you will write it louder. 25:07 I cannot I hope to have done because the big problem to work in university is that all the administrative work that you have to do, I love to work in a university because I love to teach. So I love to have on there graduate and graduate students is wonderful, I love it. But at the same time, it's very tiring and very difficult to have all the many informs and maybe in 25:40 many things that you have to do in a big university like the one I am working but 25:48 is there anything else that you're working on or you have worked on in the past that you think is important to talk about things 25:58 that are handled you see that trabajar we're not can miss alunos persistence as in the various investigators Yan is committed to Kenya they ganoderma get tambien is ongoing, authentic she is doing as medicine 26:14 and dozens more importante que sera and very important to do the phylogenetic work so to know sadly what is the medicine or morals because for example, everyone says that ganoderma lucidum is the medicinal one. And there is not another Malusi don't In Mexico there is not another man lucidum in Asia. So it's not them axonal mushrooms and is only ganoderma Xenon in Europe. And it is not medicinal. There are other species in Asia or there is species in Mexico for example ganoderma COTC, and other more steady so this work with a Malika Roy is very important to establish who is just busy we have in Mexico and which one as are the medicine are ones and we have to continue the work with silo CBT for me is very interesting. Also, they work with a jam INNOPOLIS and others with my students. I have also other work with one stone that he's finishing his master's degree. He's working with the mushrooms as that grows on ants of your quadriceps group only lateralis is the first time that this kind of mushrooms are going to be cited in Mexico. Before there were not known from Mexico. And it seemed that there are many species. We have some new key want to continue with his doctoral degree. So I am fascinated with this kind of moron but they're very, very nice. Well, maybe he continued his doctoral degree with another time with the ones of that grown Diptera. 28:00 Flies. Yeah, so I am very excited with this for maybe more than I don't remember now. But also I want to say that now I am the president of the Mexican society of mycology. And we are going to have soon the myco illogical Congress is going to be in October in San Cristobal de las casas in Chiapas. So we are all invited. Please go to San Cristobal de las Casas is a very nice town, a magic town. And the Congress is going to be very nice because after many years that we haven't seen each other so we are going to see us on to talk in presence. So it's going to be very nice meeting. So I'm also very excited for this Mexican Congress is ready and I were just in San Cristobal de las casas two months ago, something like that, and we went to last new bus. And we found we found the OVO quadriceps. 29:09 Yeah. And we found like 50 of them on all these different leaves and so many so many cool species. And do you remember the other ovo cordyceps species that we found mellow Lanta? Yeah. So yeah. 29:27 There were 29:31 seasons thesis. I like it. 29:39 And I do want to say what you were talking about with ganoderma is really important, especially because I work in the functional mushroom space. And that's been just such a misconception. For so many years people labeling their reishi as ganoderma lucidum when it's not a 30:00 It's not ganoderma lucidum or, you know, if it's from the United States, it's probably ganoderma su gay or ganoderma I think it's Oregon ence. I've only seen it written but I've never actually said it before. But and it's if it's from Asia, it's probably ganoderma literature. But yeah, and even in scientific papers, they call it ganoderma lucidum a lot of times, but it's really not it's, you know, ganoderma link shirt or another species, Link G or something else. But yeah, it's, it's important work. It's very important to get it right. The correct name for ganoderma Lishi is ganoderma. Sichuan, Nancy's De La Malinche is a synonym. Then name is ganoderma. Citronelle. 30:49 Is 30:50 the leadership name that has priorities ganoderma CH, en and yeah, how many students do you have? I don't know. I have not elite working with a cladonia cladonia Liscannor. Like, that was a Skype from Kia from the Jalisco state but maybe this person in other parts of the world. I have Sesar working with a of your cortices. And well, in collaboration with Viki, I have Anna working with by your geographic work on silo CV alone. So working with Ayala missin Messina, a postdoc, me like gabbroic. She's doing a postdoc with ganoderma. An undergraduate students I have a Oscar working with many, many, many things. And just also Manuel Chema. She's going to work with a Drusilla is going to start very soon in his master's degree 31:55 Joshi she's going to work with a latarian also in her master's degree that she's going to start soon. Mara, she's working in ethno mycology with a with cholis I think that's all. 32:13 And we have many fairs also moslem styles. We have a very in the Gila in August. We have also a motion fair in mixed LAN next July, and a new one that is organizing Mara in Biggio, Guerrero, another new one that disorganizing with videos in your in the Palpa. So with a forest from First 32:45 we'll know pregunto mass Do you have any advice for young mycologist in the world DNS consejos para holiness, Miko law has is that right? Make all of us see 33:02 see, 33:03 maybe no for my colleges in the world, but maybe for my colleges in Mexico, because some things are still very different from Mexico and from all developed countries. So in Mexico, that if they want to be my colleges, they have to study by geology to study the master's degree and the doctoral degree. Because sometimes they think that only were there by geologists degree is enough or not, it's not true. There are a lot of competition so they have to make a postcard or it is to is to become truly a mycologist and advice in general that they work in the thing that they love. That way they work is not going to be a work is going to be a passion, something that they love. Amazing. We are out of time. Unfortunately, I have a million other questions that I would actually love to ask you but maybe for another day. 34:12 Thank you everyone for listening to another episode and grasses Laura for coming on and you ready for translating in some areas and yeah, if everyone wants to check out mushroom revival.com We have some mushroom products there bunch of educational blogs as well. So definitely check it out. And tune in for more episodes. Please tell your friends about mushrooms go to the conference in San Cristobal de lis this CASAS in Chiapas in October. October. Yes, yeah, it's an amazing, amazing city and it will be an amazing conference highly, highly recommend it is from the SEC as to when to you know the activity 35:00 17 to 21 October 17 to 21. I will be out of the country at another mushroom conference but everyone who is free should definitely go. I highly, highly recommend it. And with that much love, and may the spores be with you Transcribed by https://otter.ai
