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- Published: 26 December 2025
Nature Communications , Article number: (2025) Cite this article
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Abstract
The textile dyeing industry has shaped modern aesthetics through vibrant coloration technologies. Indigoid dyes embody this potential but are hindered by the hazardous chemo-synthesis and water-intensive chemo-dyeing processes. While biosynthes…
- Article
- Open access
- Published: 26 December 2025
Nature Communications , Article number: (2025) Cite this article
We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.
Abstract
The textile dyeing industry has shaped modern aesthetics through vibrant coloration technologies. Indigoid dyes embody this potential but are hindered by the hazardous chemo-synthesis and water-intensive chemo-dyeing processes. While biosynthesis and bio-dyeing efforts offer alternatives, disjointed synthesis-dyeing steps lead to unsustainable water and energy demands, and complex biosynthetic pathways cause low atom economy and inefficiency. Here, we report a one-pot one-step approach that unifies biosynthesis and bio-dyeing of indigoids to drastically reduce water usage in the dyeing process. By combining alcohol dehydrogenase with flavin-containing monooxygenase, we construct an artificial redox-neutral cascade biosynthetic pathway to produce bluish-violet indigoid dyes, which significantly enhances atom economy and achieves high production efficiency. Various natural and synthetic fabrics are dyed in-situ with the biosynthetic indigoids utilizing recombinant E. coli whole cells. Crucially, this system dyes synthetic nylon fibers with the historic purple hue.
Data availability
Data supporting the findings of this work are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information file. A reporting summary for this Article is available as a Supplementary Information file. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Professor Yanwei Li and Dr. Mingna Zheng from Shandong University, as well as Professor Xudong Qu from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, for their assistance in simulation computations. This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (grant no. 2023YFA0914000); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 22178170; 22478186; 22208156); the Basic Research Program of Jiangsu (grant no. BK20233003; BK20250616); the State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering (No. SKL-MCE-24A03).
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Author notes
These authors contributed equally: Qi Na, Xiaowang Zhang.
Authors and Affiliations
College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211816, China
Qi Na, Xiaowang Zhang, Linna Long, Siyu Qi, Zhiyu Zhang, Ruoyu Zhi, Zhuotao Tan, Hanjie Ying & Chenjie Zhu
Authors
- Qi Na
- Xiaowang Zhang
- Linna Long
- Siyu Qi
- Zhiyu Zhang
- Ruoyu Zhi
- Zhuotao Tan
- Hanjie Ying
- Chenjie Zhu
Contributions
Q. N. and X. W. Z. conducted the investigation and wrote the original draft. L. N. L. was responsible for methodology and resources, while S. Y. Q. contributed to methodology and investigation. Z. Y. Z. and R. Y. Z. oversaw the supervision and data curation. Z. T. T. provided supervision, conceptualization, review, and editing. H. J. Y. was involved in methodology, supervision, and validation. C. J. Z. took charge of supervision, conceptualization, and reviewing. All authors reviewed the final version of the manuscript.
Corresponding authors
Correspondence to Zhuotao Tan or Chenjie Zhu.
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Cite this article
Na, Q., Zhang, X., Long, L. et al. Engineering artificial biosynthetic pathway enables simultaneous production and in-situ bio-dyeing of indigoids for textiles. Nat Commun (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67935-7
Received: 03 July 2025
Accepted: 11 December 2025
Published: 26 December 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67935-7