it was after reading the texts at
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/gregory/1042/index.html (http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/gregory/1042/index.html)
(warning: my popup killer made a lot of noise when I just checked if the URL still exists. It does, but I am afraid that a lot of spammy windows will pop up if you open it without a popup killer. I hate URLs at cheap websites...)
It seems that someone was already very successfull in isolating the enzymes and transferring them to another organism (a yeast). This didn't work out. But knocking out a gene without transferring a part of the genome to another organism is less prone to failure.
If somebody would succeed in removing the 4 hydroxy gene from a cubensis it is no problem if the mycelium looses the ability to fruit, since American Patents no. 3183172 and 3192111 (as viewed at http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/srchnum.htm (http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/srchnum.htm)
) provide a good method to get the alkaloids from a mycelium in surface culture (which BTW is much less vulnerable to contamination compared to a liquid fermentation).
If the removal of the gene does not prevent fruiting/sporulation it would even be better for legal reasons. It only needs to succeed once!
So all in all and especially after the cited tampanensis research I think that somebody should try it out. I do not possess the necessary knowledge, but knocking out genes is a technique which is routinely performed by undergraduates. So SWIY can try it out.
So I hope my post is not as hypothetical as it looks.
bibliopharmacophile