{"id":170284,"date":"2025-11-14T07:23:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T06:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=170284"},"modified":"2025-11-10T13:48:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T12:48:54","slug":"scientists-produce-powerhouse-pigment-behind-octopus-camouflage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/scientists-produce-powerhouse-pigment-behind-octopus-camouflage\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Produce Powerhouse Pigment Behind Octopus Camouflage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\"An
An octopus camouflages itself with the seafloor. UC San Diego scientists have discovered a new way to produce large amounts of xanthommatin, a natural pigment used in animal camouflage, in a bacterium for the first time. \u00a9 Charlotte Seid<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Scientists at UC San Diego have moved one step closer to unlocking a superpower held by some of nature\u2019s greatest \u201cmasters of disguise.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Octopuses, squids, cuttlefish and other animals in the cephalopod family are well known for their ability to camouflage, changing the color of their skin to blend in with the environment. This remarkable display of mimicry is made possible by complex biological processes involving xanthommatin, a natural pigment.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of its color-shifting capabilities, xanthommatin has long intrigued scientists and even the military, but has proven difficult to produce and research in the lab \u2014 until now.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a new study<\/a>, a team led by UC San Diego\u2019s Scripps Institution of Oceanography describes a major breakthrough in understanding nature’s ability to camouflage, as they successfully developed a new way to produce large amounts of xanthommatin pigment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their nature-inspired method massively over-produced the pigmented material for the first time in a bacterium, opening new possibilities for the pigment\u2019s use in a wide range of materials and cosmetics \u2014 from photoelectronic devices and thermal coatings to dyes and UV protectants. The new approach produces up to 1,000 times more material than traditional methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe’ve developed a new technique that has sped up our capabilities to make a material, in this case xanthommatin, in a bacterium for the first time,\u201d said Bradley Moore<\/strong>, the study\u2019s senior author and a marine chemist with joint appointments at Scripps Oceanography and UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences<\/strong>. \u201cThis natural pigment is what gives an octopus or a squid its ability to camouflage \u2014 a fantastic superpower \u2014 and our achievement to advance production of this material is just the tip of the iceberg.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Published Nov. 3 in Nature Biotechnology<\/a>, the study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Office of Naval Research, the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study authors said their discovery is significant, not just for understanding this unique pigment \u2014 which sheds light into the biology and chemistry of the animal kingdom \u2014 but also because the technique they used could be applied to many other chemicals, potentially helping industries move away from fossil fuel-based materials toward nature-based alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A promising pigment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Beyond cephalopods, xanthommatin is also found in insects within the arthropod group, contributing to the brilliant orange and yellow hues of monarch butterfly wings and the bright reds seen in dragonfly bodies and fly eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Cephalopods
Cephalopods like this southern reef squid can change their skin color in an instant using xanthommatin, a natural pigment. \u00a9 Luca Davenport-Thomas<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Despite xanthommatin\u2019s fantastic color properties, it is poorly understood due to a persistent supply challenge. Harvesting the pigment from animals isn\u2019t scalable or efficient, and traditional lab methods are labor intensive, reliant on chemical synthesis that is low yielding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers in the Moore Lab at Scripps Oceanography sought to change that, working with colleagues across UC San Diego and at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability in Denmark to design a solution, a sort of growth feedback loop they call \u201cgrowth coupled biosynthesis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way in which they bioengineered the octopus pigment, a chemical, in a bacterium represents a novel departure from typical biotechnological approaches. Their approach intimately connected the production of the pigment with the survival of the bacterium that made it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe needed a whole new approach to address this problem,\u201d said Leah Bushin<\/strong>, lead author of the study, now a faculty member at Stanford University<\/strong> and formerly a postdoctoral researcher in the Moore Lab at Scripps Oceanography, where her work was conducted. \u201cEssentially, we came up with a way to trick the bacteria into making more of the material that we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Typically, when researchers try to get a microbe to produce a foreign compound, it creates a major metabolic burden. Without significant genetic manipulation, the microbe resists diverting its essential resources to produce something unfamiliar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eMxtGLsdzoE?si=aTLOZsNYTTy4gq0p<\/a> Using an innovative, nature-based approach, UC San Diego Distinguished Professor Bradley Moore and his lab have been able to produce up to 1,000 times more xanthommatin material compared to traditional methods. This breakthrough unlocks a promising pathway for designing nature-inspired materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By linking the cell\u2019s survival to the production of their target compound, the team was able to trick the microbe into creating xanthommatin. To do this, they started with a genetically engineered \u201csick\u201d cell, one that could only survive if it produced both the desired pigment, along with a second chemical called formic acid. For every molecule of pigment generated, the cell also produced one molecule of formic acid. The formic acid, in turn, provides fuel for the cell\u2019s growth, creating a self-sustaining loop that drives pigment production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe made it such that activity through this pathway, of making the compound of interest, is absolutely essential for life. If the organism doesn’t make xanthommatin, it won’t grow,\u201d said Bushin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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\"Leah
Leah Bushin and Mar\u00eda Alv\u00e1n-Vargas hold samples of xanthommatin in solution freshly harvested from bacteria. Adding a reducing agent to the solution turns xanthommatin bright red. \u00a9 Pablo I. Nikel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

To further enhance the cells\u2019 ability to produce the pigment, the team used robots to evolve and optimize the engineered microbes through two high-throughput adaptive laboratory evolution campaigns, which were developed by the lab of study co-author Adam Feist, professor in the Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and senior scientist at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability. The team also applied custom bioinformatics tools from the Feist Lab to identify key genetic mutations that boosted efficiency and enabled the bacteria to make the pigment directly from a single nutrient source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThis project gives a glimpse into a future where biology enables the sustainable production of valuable compounds and materials through advanced automation, data integration and computationally driven design,\u201d said Feist.<\/strong> \u201cHere, we show how we can accelerate innovation in biomanufacturing by bringing together engineers, biologists and chemists using some of the most advanced strain-engineering techniques to develop and optimize a novel product in a relatively short time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditional approaches yield around five milligrams of pigment per liter \u201cif you’re lucky,\u201d said Bushin<\/strong>, while the new method yields between one to three grams per liter.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Getting from the planning stages to the actual experimentation in the lab took several years of dedicated work, but once the plan was put into motion, the results were almost immediate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt was one of my best days in the lab,\u201d Bushin<\/strong> recalled of the first successful experiment. \u201cI\u2019d set up the experiment and left it overnight. When I came in the next morning\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0realized it worked and it was producing a lot of pigment, I was thrilled. Moments like that are why I do science.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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\"Bacteria
Bacteria producing xanthommatin on a petri dish in the lab. \u00a9 Leah Bushin<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Next steps<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Moore anticipates that this new biotech methodology, which is fully nature-inspired and non-invasive, will transform the way in which biochemicals are produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe’ve really disrupted the way that people think about how you engineer a cell,\u201d he<\/strong> said. \u201cOur innovative technological approach sparked a huge leap in production capability. This new method solves a supply challenge and could now make this biomaterial much more broadly available.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

While some applications for this material are far-out, the authors noted active interest from the U.S. Department of Defense and cosmetics companies. According to the researchers, collaborators are interested in exploring the material\u2019s natural camouflage capabilities, while skincare companies are interested in using it in natural sunscreens. Other industries see potential uses ranging from color-changing household paints to environmental sensors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAs we look to the future, humans will want to rethink how we make materials to support our synthetic lifestyle of 8 billion people on Earth,\u201d said Moore<\/strong>. \u201cThanks to federal funding, we’ve unlocked a promising new pathway for designing nature-inspired materials that are better for people and the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Additional study authors are Tobias Alter, Mar\u00eda Alv\u00e1n-Vargas, Daniel Volke, \u00d2scar Puiggen\u00e9 and Pablo Nikel from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability; Elina Olson from UC San Diego\u2019s Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering; Lara D\u00fcrr and Mariah Avila from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego; and Taehwan Kim and Leila Deravi from Northeastern University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists at UC San Diego have moved one step closer to unlocking a superpower held by some of nature\u2019s greatest \u201cmasters of disguise.\u201d Octopuses, squids, cuttlefish and other animals in the cephalopod family are well known for their ability to camouflage, changing the color of their skin to blend in with the environment. This remarkable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":170298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"UC San Diego-led team discovers new method for producing large amounts of color-changing, nature-inspired pigment in the lab","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838,12782,27195,25819,18572],"supplier":[6333,6784,14241,1939,1110,9898,4146],"class_list":["post-170284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-colors","tag-photoelectronics","tag-pigment","tag-uvfilter","supplier-national-institutes-of-health-nih","supplier-northeastern-university","supplier-novo-nordisk-foundation-center","supplier-office-of-naval-research-onr","supplier-scripps-institution-of-oceanography","supplier-snsf","supplier-uc-san-diego"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170284"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=170284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}