Evaluation of some white-rot fungi for their potential to decolourise industrial dyes

The ligninolytic white-rot fungi, well known for their capability of breaking diverse phenolic components of lignin and lignin derivatives, have been employed for biodecolourisation of intensely coloured effluents and conventional dyes, but the studies are concentrated on Phanerochaete chrysosporium and Trametes versicolor. Present study elucidates the role of some lesser studied white-rot fungi in biodecolourisation of industrial dyes. Dichomitus squalens, Daedalea flavida, Irpex flavus and Polyporus sanguineus were tested for their potential to decolourise various chromophoric groups of eight dyes, employed in different industries. The fungal-based biocleaning systems have been suffering from drawback of adsorption, thus, in order to overcome this limitation, the cell free enzyme extracts obtained from fungal cultures have been used. D. squalens and I. flavus were found to be competitive industrial dye decolourisers in comparison to much studied white-rot fungus P. chrysosporium. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.