Role of Bacterial-Fungal Consortium for Enhancement in the Degradation of Industrial Dyes

Asmaa M M Mawad; Abd El-Latif Hesham; Naiema M H Yousef; Ahmed A M Shoreit; Nicholas Gathergood; Vijai Kumar Gupta

doi:10.2174/1389202921999200505082901

Role of Bacterial-Fungal Consortium for Enhancement in the Degradation of Industrial Dyes

Curr Genomics. 2020 May;21(4):283-294. doi: 10.2174/1389202921999200505082901.

Authors

Asmaa M M Mawad¹, Abd El-Latif Hesham¹, Naiema M H Yousef¹, Ahmed A M Shoreit¹, Nicholas Gathergood¹, Vijai Kumar Gupta¹

Affiliation

¹ 1Biology Department, College of Science, Taibah University, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, KSA; 2Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, 71516 Assiut, Egypt; 3Genetics Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef 62511, Egypt; 4Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, ERA Chair of Green Chemistry, Tallinn University of Technology, 12618Tallinn, Estonia; 5School of Chemistry, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, LN6 7DL, UK; 6AgroBioSciences (AgBS) and Chemical & Biochemical Sciences (CBS) Department, University Mohammed VI Polytechnic (UM6P), Benguerir, Morocco.

Abstract

Background: The presence of anthraquinone (Disperse blue 64) and azodyes (Acid yellow 17) in a waterbody are considered among the most dangerous pollutants.

Methods: In this study, two different isolated microbes, bacterium and fungus, were individually and as a co-culture applied for the degradation of Disperse Blue 64 (DB 64) and Acid Yellow 17 (AY 17) dyes. The isolates were genetically identified based upon 16S (for bacteria) and ITS/5.8S (for fungus) rRNA genes sequences as Pseudomoans aeruginosa and Aspergillus flavus, respectively.

Results: The fungal/bacterial consortium exhibited a higher percentage of dyes degradation than the individual strains, even at a high concentration of 300 mg/L. Azoreductase could be identified as the main catabolic enzyme and the consortium could induce azoreductase enzyme in the presence of both dyes. However, the specific substrate which achieved the highest azoreductase specific activity was Methyl red (MR) (3.5 U/mg protein). The tentatively proposed metabolites that were detected by HPLC/MS suggested that the reduction process catalyzed the degradation of dyes. The metabolites produced by the action consortium on two dyes were safe on Vicia faba and Triticum vulgaris germination and health of seedlings. Toxicity of the dyes and their degradation products on the plant was different according to the type and chemistry of these compounds as well as the type of irrigated seeds.

Conclusion: We submit that the effective microbial degradation of DB64 and AY17 dyes will lead to safer metabolic products.

Keywords: 16S and ITS/5.8S rRNA genes sequences; Aspergillus; HPLC/MS; Pseudomonas; acid yellow 17; disperse blue 64.