Growing Color
Universidad de los Andes
Biodesign Challenge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIBtWxESXRw
Growing Colorproduces colored cotton fibers in order to eliminate the dyeing process of textiles. Using Agrobacterium, a plant pathogenic bacteria commonly used for gene editing in plants, we are changing the color in which the cotton plant grows.
The textile industry is one of the most polluting in the world. Synthetic dyes for textiles are made of toxic heavy metals like mercury and cadmium that once used end up being irresponsibly discharged into water resources. Its extreme toxicity harms the ecosystems in its surroundings and cause diseases such as cancer and hormonal mutations to people.
Colombia known for its biodiversity and water resources is irresponsibly damaging its rivers and oceans. An example of the degradation is happening in Medellín, known as “The Eternal Spring City”. Here, textile factories discharge the chemicals coming from the dyeing process illegally into the river. As a response to this massive environmental problem we started to research and look for sustainable alternatives for the dyeing process.
Researching the alternatives to avoid the use of toxic tinctures, we found the possibility of genetically modifying the cotton plant to improve its useful characteristics such as productivity, endurance and quality. This sparked the idea of growing the cotton plant with the color itself, eliminating the dyeing process, the beginning of Growing Color.
Cotton fiber grows white and in different shades of green, orange and yellow. The presence of color makes the fiber shorter and weaker, therefore not suitable for textile production. To generate color in the fiber and maintaining its qualities, we are using the Agrobacteriumgene transfer method to safely introduce color into the cotton’s genome.
Growing Color’s process usesAgrobacterium, a plant pathogenic bacteria, commonly used for plant transformation. Agrobacterium, has a circular extrachromosomal DNA, called plasmid, containing several genes, some which allow the insertion of DNA into the plant’s genome, while others are responsible for the bacterial pathogenicity. We are replacing virulence genes with others that code for anthocyanin-producing genes. Anthocyanins are pigments that give flowers and fruits like berries and cherries the blue, red and purple color. The expression of the gene in the cotton fiber, is possible due to the use of a specific fiber promoter. Promoters are DNA sequences that initiate transcription of a specific gene in its target site. The outcome of this process will be seeds that grow into plants with colored
cotton fibers. By eliminating the dyeing process completely, it gives a more sustainable and circular alternative. A new economic model is proposed as the cost of the process in the genetic modification of the cotton seed would be reinvested into the development of its technology. This process, though time consuming, needs to be done once per color.
Growing Coloraims in changing the linear paradigm of textile dyeing. Growing Coloris a new way of wearing clothes free of unsustainable dyeing processes. Growing Coloris rebuilding the biodiversity in the Medellín river, by not contaminating its water sources and creating a world in which toxic synthetic dyes are a thing of the past. We are Growing Color.
