Self-pigmenting textiles grown from cellulose-producing bacteria with engineered tyrosinase expression

Environmental concerns are driving interest in postpetroleum synthetic textiles produced from microbial and fungal sources. Bacterial cellulose is a promising sustainable leather alternative, on account of its material properties, low infrastructure needs and biodegradability. However, for alternative textiles like BC to be fully sustainable, alternative ways to dye textiles need to be developed alongside alternative production methods.

The field of engineered living materials uses the tools of synthetic biology to reprogram living cells at the DNA level to build new or enhanced biomaterials for specific applications. In carbon-rich media, these bacteria polymerize and secrete linear chains of glucose. These chains then self-assemble into a dense interconnected mesh of cellulose fibers. This cellulose mesh, called a pellicle, floats at the air–water interface and envelops and protects the growing cells, like a biofilm.

To produce the melanated pellicle used to make the shoe, a custom-shaped vessel, containing an apparatus that held a network of tightly strung yarn, was sterilized and filled with 2 l of coconut water media supplemented with 0.5 g lpellicle. To accommodate the fed-batch procedure and unique vessel size necessary to incorporate the yarn apparatus, the culture was left to grow at room temperature in stationary conditions, until a thin pellicle had formed.

We would like to thank A. Kamolz and A. Potts at Modern Synthesis for construction and photography of the wallet prototype, E. Tritton for photography of the shoe upper and B. Reeve at Modern Synthesis for culture scale-up advice and manuscript feedback. We also thank T. Tschirhart at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory for informative dialogue on the Tyr1 tyrosinase, A. Baumschlager and M. Khammash for sharing the Opto-T7 plasmids with us, M.

culture, centrifuged cell pellets and remaining supernatant. Presence or absence of L-tyrosine at 0.5 g/L in each assay sample is shown below each bar. Average initial reaction rates shown as bars were derived from the gradient of ODpellicles. Pellicles labeled under HS, were incubated in HS media, while those pellicles labeled under Mel+ were incubated in PBS with 0.

Source: Loan Digest (loandigest.net)

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