Journal of Biotechnology & Biomaterials
Open Access

Abstract

One of the major chemical pollutants from textile industries is the toxic azo dyes and their reductive cleavage products that can be carcinogenic and even mutagenic. Large volume of azo dye-containing wastewater gets discharged into the natural ecosystem and poses serious health hazard to humans and aquatic life. Various physicochemical and biological methods have been developed for the reduction of azo dyes to achieve decolorization. Biological methods based on utilization of ligninolytic fungi are widely researched. The present study was aimed towards degradation of azo dyes viz. congo red and amido black 10B. Dye contaminated soil samples were collected and screened for obtaining potential fungal strains for dye degradation. Two potential fungal strains were isolated and identified as Rhizoctonia and Mucor on the basis of morphological and microscopic observations. Rhizoctonia sp. showed 94% decolorization of congo red within 60 hours, while Mucor sp. exhibited 60 % decolorization of amido black 10B following 180 hours of incubation. Enzyme profiling detected notable levels of both laccase and manganese peroxidase during decolorization. Moreover, manganese peroxidase appeared to be the predominant enzyme responsible for dye decolorization (744.6 U ml-1, congo red; 74.46 U ml-1, amido black 10B). The isolated fungal strains exhibited adequate potential to decolorize the azo dyes. The strains can provide an eco-friendly and cost effective tools for bioremediation.

Biography

Email: 2014phdmb04@curaj.ac.in