Indigo genes dyeing to make jeans cleaner and greener

In ancient times fabric dyers were often banished to the edge of town because their vats were so noxious and smelly. Modern dyeing too is not generally the cleanest and greenest of chemical technologies. But the process of dyeing with the traditional colorant indigo, still used for making blue denim, could become more environmentally friendly thanks to a neat bit of bioengineering by a team at the University of California at Berkeley.