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Published on: May 26, 2016
One-pot production of colored bacterial cellulose
Hengrui Zhou1, Pingxin Lin1, Ki Jun Jeong2
1Metabolic and Biomolecular Engineering National Research Laboratory, Systems Metabolic Engineering and Systems Healthcare Cross-Generation Collaborative Laboratory, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea; Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (BK21 four), KAIST, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea; KAIST Institute for the BioCentury, KAIST, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
None:
Due to health and pollution concerns, sustainable textile production is receiving increasing attention. Bacterial cellulose (BC) offers an environmentally friendly alternative to petroleum-based fabrics. However, the use of petroleum-based synthetic colorants and toxic reagents in dyeing processes impedes the fully sustainable production of colored BC. To address this issue, we developed a one-pot production system for colored BC biosynthesis, aiming to simplify and streamline the manufacturing process. A co-culture strategy using Escherichia coli for natural colorant synthesis and Komagataeibacter xylinus for BC synthesis was developed and optimized to achieve the one-pot production of multicolored BC, including proviolacein-BC (green), prodeoxyviolacein-BC (blue), violacein-BC (navy), deoxyviolacein-BC (purple), astaxanthin-BC (red), β-carotene-BC (orange), and zeaxanthin-BC (yellow). This study demonstrates the robust co-culture strategy and platform for efficient, scalable, and eco-friendly process biopolymer-based fabric production, offering a sustainable alternative for applications in the living materials industry.
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