Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BIOMATFAB (Biological fabrication of cotton fibers with tailored properties)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-08-01 do 2025-01-31
Naturally produced fibers, such as cotton, and their coloration have played central roles in shaping the course of human civilizations. Yet, the high demand for biological fibers in the textile industry put the supply chain under strain. Current agricultural practices and dyeing practices are unsustainable, with the latter relying on old and inefficient chemical processes. The textile industry, particularly the dyeing industry, is the second most polluting industry in the world. Thus, it is urgent to seek future sustainable alternatives. What alternatives and tools are available? Which new avenues are waiting to be explored toward this end?
Harnessing biological systems represents one of humanity's most exciting frontiers for advancing sustainability. The challenge lies in our limited understanding of higher (multicellular) organisms and our capacity to manipulate them for material design. This gap in knowledge holds true across all biological systems that produce materials and is the current frontier of biological material science.
Our first aim is to investigate and understand the dynamics of sugar transport in cotton plants. While the transport of photosynthetic products is well understood, the same cannot be said for exogenously introduced modified sugars. Understanding this process is crucial to achieving our ultimate goal: to harness biological systems to incorporate these modified sugars into cotton fibers in a controlled manner, allowing us to tailor their properties.The follow-up aim is to scale up the production of these glucose derivatives to facilitate their delivery to cotton plants. To this end, we have devised a bio-strategy that leverages cyanobacteria as biological factories, using their photosynthetic apparatus to convert glucose derivatives into sucrose derivatives.
With an understanding of the biological process of sugar transport and large quantities of sugar derivatives in our hands, we can proceed to our more ambitious goal: demonstrate that we can feed cotton plants with sugars and control their incorporation into the fibers to produce color (or functional) cotton fibers – to what we call "dye from within".
Demonstrating the feasibility of biological fabrication and material farming in whole cotton plants represents a formidable scientific challenge, opening new avenues for research in other plants toward the material or properties tailoring. This would simultaneously provide a revolutionizing sustainable alternative to manufacturing current chemical-based strategies for textile dyeing, spearheading a bio-based textile global economy.
Harnessing biological systems represents one of humanity's most exciting frontiers for advancing sustainability. The challenge lies in our limited understanding of higher (multicellular) organisms and our capacity to manipulate them for material design. This gap in knowledge holds true across all biological systems that produce materials and is the current frontier of biological material science.
Our first aim is to investigate and understand the dynamics of sugar transport in cotton plants. While the transport of photosynthetic products is well understood, the same cannot be said for exogenously introduced modified sugars. Understanding this process is crucial to achieving our ultimate goal: to harness biological systems to incorporate these modified sugars into cotton fibers in a controlled manner, allowing us to tailor their properties.The follow-up aim is to scale up the production of these glucose derivatives to facilitate their delivery to cotton plants. To this end, we have devised a bio-strategy that leverages cyanobacteria as biological factories, using their photosynthetic apparatus to convert glucose derivatives into sucrose derivatives.
With an understanding of the biological process of sugar transport and large quantities of sugar derivatives in our hands, we can proceed to our more ambitious goal: demonstrate that we can feed cotton plants with sugars and control their incorporation into the fibers to produce color (or functional) cotton fibers – to what we call "dye from within".
Demonstrating the feasibility of biological fabrication and material farming in whole cotton plants represents a formidable scientific challenge, opening new avenues for research in other plants toward the material or properties tailoring. This would simultaneously provide a revolutionizing sustainable alternative to manufacturing current chemical-based strategies for textile dyeing, spearheading a bio-based textile global economy.
The BIOMATFAB project has three interconnected aims:
Aim 1 explores how cotton plants (Gossypium hirsutum) absorb sugars through their roots and transport them to fibers, hypothesizing that exogenous sugars contribute to fiber development.
Aim 2 investigates cyanobacteria as biofactories for sucrose derivatives, examining whether they can function heterotrophically while maintaining production.
Aim 3 focuses on engineering hydrophobic cotton fibers by transporting fluoro-sugars from roots to fibers, integrating the first two aims to enable material farming.
Progress & Key Findings
Significant progress was made in Aim 1, despite challenges from the war in Israel. We developed dwarfed hydroponic cotton plants, a first in scientific literature, facilitating controlled experiments.
By feeding ¹³C-labeled glucose to roots, we confirmed its uptake and transport to fibers, analyzing its distribution across tissues. Further ¹³C metabolic profiling revealed glucose dimerization, phosphorylation, transport, and polymerization into cellulose.
Additionally, in vitro ovule experiments screened glucose derivatives with functional groups (azide, fluorine, amine, fluorescent). Fluorinated and fluorescent derivatives inhibited hexokinases, preventing incorporation, while azide-functionalized glucose unexpectedly enhanced programmable biodegradability in soil—a groundbreaking discovery in fiber research.
Aim 1 explores how cotton plants (Gossypium hirsutum) absorb sugars through their roots and transport them to fibers, hypothesizing that exogenous sugars contribute to fiber development.
Aim 2 investigates cyanobacteria as biofactories for sucrose derivatives, examining whether they can function heterotrophically while maintaining production.
Aim 3 focuses on engineering hydrophobic cotton fibers by transporting fluoro-sugars from roots to fibers, integrating the first two aims to enable material farming.
Progress & Key Findings
Significant progress was made in Aim 1, despite challenges from the war in Israel. We developed dwarfed hydroponic cotton plants, a first in scientific literature, facilitating controlled experiments.
By feeding ¹³C-labeled glucose to roots, we confirmed its uptake and transport to fibers, analyzing its distribution across tissues. Further ¹³C metabolic profiling revealed glucose dimerization, phosphorylation, transport, and polymerization into cellulose.
Additionally, in vitro ovule experiments screened glucose derivatives with functional groups (azide, fluorine, amine, fluorescent). Fluorinated and fluorescent derivatives inhibited hexokinases, preventing incorporation, while azide-functionalized glucose unexpectedly enhanced programmable biodegradability in soil—a groundbreaking discovery in fiber research.
During the ERC-CoG BIOMATFAB reporting period, we achieved multiple breakthroughs, advancing knowledge beyond the current state of the art. Our high-risk, high-gain approach required the development and validation of entirely new methodologies, aligning with ERC’s philosophy of enabling ‘research leaps’ through unconventional exploration.
A major breakthrough was demonstrating that sugars can be taken up by plant roots and transported to fibers, challenging the long-standing paradigm that plants rely solely on photosynthesis for carbon acquisition. We provided the first experimental evidence that root-absorbed sugars are integrated into fibers. These findings lay the foundation for using glucose derivatives and root-feeding strategies for fiber modification, bringing Aim 3 within reach.
To support this controversial claim, we developed a metabolic pipeline for tracking 13C incorporation across plant tissues (leaf, stem, fruit, fibers) at a molecular resolution. This enabled us to elucidate transport mechanisms and strengthened our earlier observations on unconventional upward sugar movement. Further systematic data collection is ongoing, facilitated by the groundwork established in the first phase of this project, including stabilized greenhouse conditions, dwarfing protocols, and optimized data analysis pipelines.
The implications of these findings extend far beyond cotton. Sugar derivatives could be delivered through root uptake, allowing for enhanced metabolite production and nutrient-rich crops (e.g. superfoods) without requiring lengthy regulatory approval for genetic modifications. This approach may also serve as an innovative pest control strategy by feeding plants cyanogenic glucose derivatives to activate defense pathways.
Finally, while conducting glucose derivative screening, we unexpectedly discovered that cotton fibers can incorporate glucose with azides, resulting in fibers that degrade more rapidly in soil. Even more remarkably, we demonstrated that biodegradation rates can be controlled by varying glucose derivative concentrations, effectively programming fiber lifespan.
This breakthrough addresses a major environmental challenge, as textile waste has severe ecological and societal impacts. Current studies primarily focus on post-processing biodegradability (e.g. finishing methods), whereas we pioneer a built-in, programmable biodegradability approach at the molecular level. Our next step is to translate this concept into whole dwarfed cotton plants, leveraging our established methods workflow to develop innovative, market-ready products that could revolutionize sustainable textile production.
A major breakthrough was demonstrating that sugars can be taken up by plant roots and transported to fibers, challenging the long-standing paradigm that plants rely solely on photosynthesis for carbon acquisition. We provided the first experimental evidence that root-absorbed sugars are integrated into fibers. These findings lay the foundation for using glucose derivatives and root-feeding strategies for fiber modification, bringing Aim 3 within reach.
To support this controversial claim, we developed a metabolic pipeline for tracking 13C incorporation across plant tissues (leaf, stem, fruit, fibers) at a molecular resolution. This enabled us to elucidate transport mechanisms and strengthened our earlier observations on unconventional upward sugar movement. Further systematic data collection is ongoing, facilitated by the groundwork established in the first phase of this project, including stabilized greenhouse conditions, dwarfing protocols, and optimized data analysis pipelines.
The implications of these findings extend far beyond cotton. Sugar derivatives could be delivered through root uptake, allowing for enhanced metabolite production and nutrient-rich crops (e.g. superfoods) without requiring lengthy regulatory approval for genetic modifications. This approach may also serve as an innovative pest control strategy by feeding plants cyanogenic glucose derivatives to activate defense pathways.
Finally, while conducting glucose derivative screening, we unexpectedly discovered that cotton fibers can incorporate glucose with azides, resulting in fibers that degrade more rapidly in soil. Even more remarkably, we demonstrated that biodegradation rates can be controlled by varying glucose derivative concentrations, effectively programming fiber lifespan.
This breakthrough addresses a major environmental challenge, as textile waste has severe ecological and societal impacts. Current studies primarily focus on post-processing biodegradability (e.g. finishing methods), whereas we pioneer a built-in, programmable biodegradability approach at the molecular level. Our next step is to translate this concept into whole dwarfed cotton plants, leveraging our established methods workflow to develop innovative, market-ready products that could revolutionize sustainable textile production.