UC San Diego researchers engineered bacteria to produce xanthommatin, the pigment that helps cephalopods camouflage, by using a method called growth-coupled biosynthesis. By tying cell growth to pigment and formic acid production and applying adaptive laboratory evolution, yields rose to 3 g/L—about 1,000× higher than previous methods (~5 mg/L). The work, published in Nature Biotechnology, could accelerate biomimicry research and demonstrate scalable approaches for sustainable microbial manufacturing.
Engineered Bacteria Mass‑Produce the Octopus Camouflage Pigment, Paving the Way for Biomimicry and Sustainable Manufacturing
UC San Diego researchers engineered bacteria to produce xanthommatin, the pigment that helps cephalopods camouflage, by using a method called growth-coupled biosynthesis. By tying cell growth to pigment and formic acid production and applying adaptive laboratory evolution, yields rose to 3 g/L—about 1,000× higher than previous methods (~5 mg/L). The work, published in Nature Biotechnology, could accelerate biomimicry research and demonstrate scalable approaches for sustainable microbial manufacturing.
21:55, 07.11.2025Science
Scientists reprogram microbes to make the rare pigment behind cephalopod camouflage
Octopuses, squids and other cephalopods owe their near-magical ability to blend into complex environments to specialized pigments and skin structures. Researchers at UC San Diego report a major advance toward reproducing that capability by convincing bacteria to manufacture xanthommatin, a pigment long difficult to obtain in practical quantities.
From tiny yields to grams per liter
Rather than synthesizing the molecule chemically, the team rewired bacterial metabolism so microbes produce xanthommatin directly. Using a strategy the authors call growth-coupled biosynthesis, they linked a cell's ability to grow to its production of xanthommatin and formic acid. Because the engineered pathway supplies growth fuel in proportion to pigment made, cells must continue producing the pigment to survive and multiply.
That design, combined with adaptive laboratory evolution and bioinformatics-guided optimization, produced yields up to 3 grams per liter of culture — roughly 1,000× higher than earlier methods that produced about 5 milligrams per liter. While 3 g/L is not an industrial commodity scale yet, it transforms xanthommatin from a lab curiosity into a substance accessible for broader study and development.
Why this matters
Greater access to xanthommatin could accelerate research into cephalopod camouflage and the design of materials or devices that mimic dynamic color-changing skin. Beyond biomimicry, the work demonstrates a powerful concept for microbial manufacturing: by tightly coupling production to growth, bacteria can be persuaded to make otherwise costly or unstable compounds more efficiently.
"We'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," said Bradley Moore, a marine chemist at Scripps Oceanography and UC San Diego. "This natural pigment is what gives an octopus or a squid its ability to camouflage — a fantastic superpower — and our achievement to advance production of this material is just the tip of the iceberg."
Lead author Leah Bushin described the breakthrough as the result of a new approach to a long-standing problem. The team engineered strains that effectively "need" pigment production to grow and then honed those strains using evolutionary selection and computational design. Co-author Adam Feist noted the broader implications: the project points toward a future where biology enables sustainable production of valuable compounds through advanced automation and computational strain engineering.
Published in: Nature Biotechnology. The advance combines metabolic engineering, adaptive evolution, and bioinformatics to make a rare natural pigment far more obtainable for research and potential applications.