Difference between revisions of "Team:Paris Bettencourt/Project/Indigo"

Making patterns on denim

Highlights

Goals

Methods

Results

BioBrick

Abstract

The main focus of our project this year was enzyme design and discovery. We chose to engineer enzymes because they are a practical technology for removing stains, already known to be safe and economic. However, in our search for microbes that produce stain-removing enzymes we discovered something else: microbes are beautiful. When nutrients are added to fabric samples, bacterial and fungal colonies bloom in every size, shape and color. These microbes grow in beautiful patterns, remove pigments from fabric and leave other pigments behind. When the microbes were gone, the color and texture of the fabric was changed in ways that looked cool to us. What we describe below is not necessarily practical and only somewhat scientific. We are playing around with microbes on ordinary denim blue jeans and trying to create beauty.

Motivation and Background

Blue Jeans: Structure and Function

Jeans are trousers made with denim, a cotton textile. Blue jeans are dyed with indigo, a plant-derived pigment that is now mostly produced synthetically. In a classic blue denim weave, the warp thread is dyed with indigo while the weft threat is left white. The reasulting fabric is blue on one surface, white on the other, with a grainy texture where the fibers cross. The blue threads are stained only on the outside and stay white at the core. As a result, the fabric lightens with wear, producing a characteristic fading pattern (Figure 1).

Denim Washes

The popular appeal of faded denim has lead to the development of many industrial processes that simulate or accelerate the fading process. New denim may be chemically treated, sandblasted, rubbed with sandpaper, or tumbled with abrasive stones prior to sale. These "wash" processes soften the fabric, fade the indigo, and produce a distinctive pattern and appearance. Especially with the trend toward high fashion and premium jeans, designers are motivated to discover new and innovative wash processes. The global jeans market was predicted to be 56 billion USD in 2014 (Agarwal, 2009).

Results

We cultured microorganisms on denim covered with minimal M9, isolated the strains and identified them. Then, we tested their capacity at indigo’s degradation. At the end we have three microorganisms that degrade indigo: 2 Streptomyces and Pantoea.

Methods

Attribution

This project was done mostly by Mislav and Elisa. We would like to thank XX for their collaboration.

References

• R Campos, A Kandelbauer, K.H Robra, Artur Cavaco-Paulo, G.M Gübitz (2001). Indigo degradation with urified laccases from Trametes hirsute and Sclerotium rolfsii . Journal of Biotechnology; 131-139
• Dubé, E., Shareck, F., Hurtubise, Y. et al. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol (2008) 79: 597. Homologous cloning, expression and characterization of a laccase from Streptomyces coelicolor and enzymatic decolourisation of an indigo dye.
• J Margot, C Bennati-Granier, J Maillard, P Blánquez, D.A Barry, C Holliger (2013). Bacterial versus fungal laccase : potential for micropollutant degradation. ABM Express ; 3 :63.