Duckweed is a floating aquatic plant that naturally grows on water surfaces and reproduces extremely quickly.
Professor Asaph Aharoni head of the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, explained to AgTechNavigator that a key advantage of duckweed lies in its ability to produce both small molecules that get secreted into the surrounding water.
“One of the major things is that we found out that we can get molecules, whether small molecules like pigments or also proteins, that are secreted into the water,” said Aharoni.
This addresses one of the major cost and energy challenges in biomanufacturing – harvesting.
“When you want to produce a high‑value material, you have to take it out of your host organism. In plants, it’s a lot of energy and cost to harvest it. Here, if you manage to get the molecule out to the medium, which is water, you can very efficiently harvest it,” said Aharoni.
The same plants can be continuously returned to the pool after harvesting and allowed to produce again.
Duckweed reproduces rapidly and consistently. Biomass typically doubles every 36 to 48 hours, placing duckweed somewhere between bacteria and higher plants in terms of growth speed.
Greener red pigment
Supported by Abu Dhabi-based Desertech Ventures, the technology has been developed to produce high‑value molecules.
One major focus is pigment production, particularly through the Ever:Red initiative, which uses the duckweed to produce a natural red pigment that can rival conventional insect‑based and synthetic sources.
Red pigment is traditionally obtained from cochineal bugs, which are dried and crushed to produce carminic acid to create the vibrant red dye known as carmine.
Carmine is widely viewed as unsustainable and ethically contentious, having been known to cause allergic reactions, making a natural and vegan alternative highly sought after in food and cosmetics.
The researchers began to identify the genetic pathway responsible for producing the red pigment.
Once they have the right genetic instructions, the scientists transfer them into the duckweed through a multi-step pathway involving multiple genes and enzymes.
The optimisation is a step-by-step process that eventually turns the plant into a living factory that can produce the red pigment on its own.
The engineered duckweed plants are then tested to make sure they are producing the pigment at useful levels.
The entire process of engineering the duckweed could take up to a year.
Industry-level gamechanger
A natural red pigment alternative is just the beginning for Aharoni and his team.
He explained the potential of exploring other natural pigments those of the henna plant.
“These are pigments that were used in the Middle Ages. People extracted the colours from plants and used them to dye. Now we can maybe use the same pigments, but make their production much more efficient, rather than harvesting them in nature or in the field,” said Aharoni.
A significant extension of the work goes beyond just producing the pigment.
The team has explored engineer cotton fibres that already contain pigment, potentially eliminating the dyeing step – one of the most polluting stages in apparel manufacturing – entirely.
The Indee:Cotton initiative aims to introduce indigo pigments into cotton plants. By doing so, it aims to create a more sustainable route to coloured denim.
In addition to pigmentation, the team plans to introduce other desirable traits into cotton fibres.
These include modifying fibre properties by introducing proteins used by silkworms to produce silk, with the aim of improving fibre strength, texture or functionality.
The programme is still at an early stage but is supported by dedicated scientific leadership from researchers with deep expertise in cotton fibre biology.
When successful, it would have the potential to be an industry-level gamechanger.
Scaling and strategy
Another major application discussed is the production of proteins, including growth factors.
In this case, duckweed would again offer major advantages as proteins can be secreted into water and harvested more affordably.
Additionally, duckweed have extremely high protein content, in some cases reaching 20 to 45 per cent.
The team has already engineered duckweed lines producing more than a dozen different proteins.
These proteins have potential uses across pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food and biotechnology.
As duckweed cultivation has already been explored at large scale by other companies, existing infrastructure is readily available.
Aharoni said it such facilities ranged from large open or semi‑open pools to highly sterile container‑based systems.
“All we need to do is tap in. If we come with the right technologies, with the right ingredients, and with the right market need, we don’t need to invest in the capex,” said Aharoni.
While team believes this technology could be powerful, it does have limitations.
For instance, producing certain molecules may damage or stress the plant, requiring additional engineering and optimisation and extending time to market.
Compared with synthetic chemistry or microbial fermentation, plant engineering takes longer, and duckweed systems are not instant.
In the case of pigments, Aharoni said competing with synthetic dyes on price alone is difficult, as synthetic pigments are extremely cheap.
The competitive advantage instead lies in sustainability, environmental impact and regulatory pressure.
He noted that once governments or brands take stronger action against issues pollution dyeing, biologically produced pigments will become a far more attractive option.
