Why bacterial cellulose is a sought-after material

The word ‘cellulose’ generally brings to mind plant-derived fibres, but the biopolymer can be produced by bacteria too.Because BCs are produced by bacteria culture, it is possible to impart desirable properties by engineering the bacteria.Research now focuses on genetic engineering of  Komagataeibacter and other organisms such as  Saccharomyces cerevisiae that can be co-cultured with  Komagataeibacter.” They further note that their work underscores the value of genetic engineering “to design and construct strains intended to grow materials with desired properties; in this case with a chosen colour grown into the material, rather than having to be added to it later by an industrial chemical dyeing process.

Plant cellulose is ubiquitous, but it suffers from drawbacks such as contamination with lignin, wax and hemicellulose.Bacterial cellulose (BC), on the other hand, is free from impurities such as lignin and wax, shows water retention capacity and other mechanical properties.