La Jolla scientists unlock secret to re-creating octopus ‘superpower’

In researching his new scientific breakthrough, La Jolla-based marine chemist Bradley Moore asked a lot of important questions. Namely, “Who doesn’t love superpowers?”

In early November, a new study out of Moore’s lab detailed a major achievement in understanding nature’s ability to camouflage. It was an effort decades in the making.

Octopuses, squids, cuttlefish and other animals in the cephalopod family are known for their ability to change the color of their skin to blend with the environment. It is made possible by complex biological processes involving xanthommatin, a natural pigment.

Because of its color-shifting capabilities, making the pigment has been of interest in fields from cosmetics to the military, but it has been difficult to produce in large amounts in a lab — until now.

Scientists at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla have for the first time developed a way to do it.

“We all love superpowers, and many of us have seen an octopus do its thing and be able to camouflage itself. … The ability for an animal to disappear into the background is pretty cool,” said Moore, whose lab focuses on the “chemical wonders of the natural world.”

“I think plenty of us would want that superpower for ourselves. While we have always been fascinated by nature and the capabilities [of certain creatures], this one has been on our bucket list for quite some time.”

Though the ability to change colors has been long known, the process to re-create it in the lab has not been. Especially in a scalable way that isn’t completely cost-prohibitive.

“It’s just too expensive to generate, so it has lagged in the scientific community to study it,” Moore said. “There is a lot of interest, but all of it was held back because access has not been practical.”

But Moore and his lab took a new approach to developing new materials based on genetic processes.

Xanthommatin is a material that several creatures make naturally, which means it is genetically programmed, Moore said. Though genetic engineering allows science to grow certain materials in bacteria to harvest later, the process would yield only a small amount of xanthommatin.

“So we did something different,” Moore said. “We wondered what would happen if we taught the bacteria that if it didn’t make the material, it would die.”

To do that, the team started with a genetically engineered “sick” cell that could survive only if it produced both the desired pigment and a second chemical called formic acid. For every molecule of pigment generated, the cell also produced one molecule of formic acid. The formic acid, in turn, provided fuel for the cell’s growth, creating a self-sustaining loop driving pigment production.

Through this “mafia-inspired” approach, “we were able to rapidly teach this organism to make large amounts of this material,” Moore said.

The result was production of up to 1,000 times more xanthommatin than traditional methods, he said.

“I was so excited. You don’t always get these types of projects that capture so much of the imagination and creativity,” he said. “This project brought together so many team members across the world who have been working on this for years.”

Moore thinks the impact could be wide-ranging.

“We think it has lots of legs beyond xanthommatin pigment,” he said. “We are in active conversations with cosmetic companies and hope to explore other directions like paints, foods and other things.”

There also is “active interest” from the U.S. military, he said.

The xanthommatin made in Moore’s lab ranges from reds and yellows to shades of brown because “that’s what nature provides.” But in the future, it could be engineered to produce different colors.

“Now that we know the genetic blueprint as to how this is made, we can program it to do things that aren’t in nature,” Moore said.

That also opens the door to more processes and discoveries.

“We really wanted to test-case this and show how we can do things,” Moore said. “The work to couple the growth of an organism [in bacteria] to make new materials is continuing.”