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Updated: May 29, 2026

Isolation and Screening from Soil Biodiversity for Fungi Involved in the Degradation of Recalcitrant Materials
Published on: May 16, 2022
Biodegradation pathway and detoxification of the diazo dye Reactive Black 5 by Phanerochaete chrysosporium
Naeimeh Enayatizamir1, Fatemeh Tabandeh, Susana Rodríguez-Couto
1Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Chamran University, Ahvaz, Iran.
Abstract:
The in vivo biodegradation of the diazo dye Reactive Black 5 (RB5) by Phanerochaete chrysosporium immobilised on cubes of nylon sponge and on sunflower-seed shells (SS) in laboratory-scale bioreactors was investigated. The SS cultivation led to the best results with a decolouration percentage of 90.3% in 72 h for an initial RB5 concentration of 100 mg/L. It was found that the addition of 0.4 mM veratryl alcohol (VA) into the medium considerably increased the decolouration rate in SS cultivation. However, the addition of VA had no effect in the nylon cultivation. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) revealed that RB5 was transformed into one metabolite after 24 h. UV-vis spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) also confirmed the biodegradation of RB5. Toxicity of RB5 solutions before and after fungal treatment was assayed using Sinorhizobium meliloti as a sensitive soil microorganism. P. chrysosporium transformed the toxic dye RB5 into a non-toxic product.
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