UCSD’s xanthomatin biosynthesis breakthrough

2:29dive in >> and start with our first story. >> Yep. >> Out of UCSD, which is a biosynthesis story. >> Yes. about mass- prodducing what octopi or octopus use for camouflage and this was out of nature biotechnology. Yeah. Uh a lot of people love talking about like octtop octopi are super intelligent and everyone's like oh that's like an alien intelligence in the ocean. Um and this has I think been something we've known about but have just now made this next step of like how can we replicate? So let's talk about this. >> Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The idea is that we want to mass-produce something called zanthom maten. Okay, it's

3:11nature's master of disguise. It's a pigment that is responsible for seeopod camouflage. Okay, seeopods are your octopus, squid, cuttlefish. There you've got a photo. The I can't see the octopus. The octopus are incredible at camouflage. >> Oh, there's there's an octopus in that photo. >> Yeah, in that red circle, there's an there's an octopus in there. >> That's incredible. >> Yeah. But it's it's not only matched the texture, but the exact color characteristics of the coral reef or the ocean floor that's behind it. And it's it's honestly like defying >> any reason how good it is. The same the same pigment is also found in the coloration of butterflies and