Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Genetically encoding colors and images into bioengineered microbial materials

  • Research Briefing
  • Published:

From Nature Biotechnology

View current issue Submit your manuscript

Using synthetic biology, we engineered a cellulose-producing bacterium that can produce eumelanin and respond to light, so that it is possible to grow a microbial leather material that is colored black or contains projected black patterns.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1: Production of black melanated cellulose by engineered bacteria.

References

  1. Florea, M. et al. Engineering control of bacterial cellulose production using a genetic toolkit and a new cellulose-producing strain. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA. 113, E3431–E3440 (2016). This paper introduces the cellulose-producing K. rhaeticus strain used in our study.

  2. Goosens, V. J. et al. Komagataeibacter tool kit (KTK): a modular cloning system for multigene constructs and programmed protein secretion from cellulose producing bacteria. ACS Synth. Biol. 10, 3422–3434 (2021). This paper describes a modular toolkit for engineering K. rhaeticus.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Baumschlager, A., Aoki, S. K. & Khammash, M. Dynamic blue light-inducible T7 RNA polymerases (Opto-T7RNAPs) for precise spatiotemporal gene expression control. ACS Synth. Biol. 6, 2157–2167 (2021). This paper describes the optogenetics system we adapted to the cellulose-producing K. rhaeticus used in our study.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Tica, J. et al. A three-node Turing gene circuit forms periodic spatial patterns in bacteria. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.10.19.563112 (2023). A preprint that presents a system for producing Turing patterns in engineered Escherichia coli.

Download references

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This is a summary of: Walker, K. T. et al. Self-pigmenting textiles grown from cellulose-producing bacteria with engineered tyrosinase expression. Nat. Biotechnol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-024-02194-3 (2024).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Genetically encoding colors and images into bioengineered microbial materials. Nat Biotechnol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-024-02200-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-024-02200-8

  • Springer Nature America, Inc.

Search

Navigation