color.bio

color.bio provides a compendium of natural pigments produced by fungi, bacteria, and archaea, linking pigment chemical composition and biosynthetic pathways to visual color representations for the study of biological pigmentation.

Key Features:

• The Living Color Database: An online repository cataloging pigments expressed by fungi, bacteria, and archaea and linking organisms across the tree of life.
• Pigment annotations: Each pigment entry records chemical composition and biosynthetic pathway information alongside visual representations in HEX, RGB, and Pantone.
• Aspergillus niger model: Uses Aspergillus niger to illustrate melanin biosynthesis with comparisons to human pigmentation.
• Interdisciplinary data framing: Combines scientific data on pigmentation with artistic documentation to contextualize pigment biology.
• Multimedia records: Includes photographic, video, animation, and time-lapse documentation of pigment expression.

Scientific Applications:

• Biochemical metabolism: Enables study of biosynthetic pathways and chemical structures underlying microbial pigment production.
• Organism–environment interactions: Supports investigation of how pigmentation mediates microbial responses to environmental conditions.
• Fungal biotechnology: Provides reference data for exploiting fungal pigments in biotechnological applications.
• Comparative pigmentation studies: Facilitates comparisons between fungal and human pigmentation, including melanin biology.

Methodology:

Development combined scientific research with artistic expression and used Aspergillus niger as a model to illustrate melanin biosynthetic processes.