a bacterium commonly found in the Amazon rainforest promises to be a new source of ecofriendly plastic and life-saving medicines, if scientists who cracked its genetic code are to be believed. A consortium of 100 scientists, working for the Brazil National Genome Project, sequenced the genome of Chromobacterium violaceum. They accidentally hit upon the industrial and pharmaceutical potential of the microorganism, which is otherwise linked to fatal infections.

Discovered for the first time at the fag end of the 19th century, C violaceum is one of the most versatile and adaptable microorganisms; hence it dominates a variety of ecosystems in tropical and subtropical regions. The research on C violaceum started some 30 years ago, was intended to tackle its adverse affects. But subsequently, the scientists turned their attention to its beneficial properties. In 1978, they stumbled upon a pigment called violacein, which can cure certain skin diseases. In December 2000, Brazilian scientists also unravelled that the pigment has therapeutic properties against several kinds of cancer, tuberculosis, as well as the deadly chagas