Thousands Shades of Microbes: Micro-Paint by Nature

Many microbes are ubiquitous in producing and secreting out colors. There are several live examples of vibrant microbial coloured ecological units in nature. Man has always explored potential applications for the excellent quality of colour produced by microbes. The metabolic economics in microbes is very conservative and therefore microbes produce something only if it has a role in its own existence, protection and maintenance. For microbes, pigments are secondary metabolites; however, for humankind it is a great opportunity to explore the ability of microbes to produce safe natural pigments for use in day to day life. The need for safe and naturally occurring (edible) colouring agents has tremendously increased on the background of carcinogenic and teratogenic nature of many synthetic colouring agents. It will be interesting to know some unique features of these and potential applications of such microbes and their pigments.