Abstract
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•MnP-YC4 is a promising yeast consortium for the tolerance of lignin degradation inhibitors.•MnP activity induced by lignin was found to be highly related to dye decolorization by MnP-YC4.•MnP-YC4 demonstrated a strong ability to decolorize the pure sulfonated reactive OII azo dye.•Efficient decolorization of dye-containing simulated and real textile wastewater by MnP-YC4.•Phytotoxicity study revealed the nontoxic nature of the dye metabolites.
MnP-YC4, a newly constructed manganese peroxidase-producing yeast consortium, has been developed to withstand lignin degradation inhibitors while degrading and detoxifying azo dye. MnP-YC4 tolerance to major biomass-derived inhibitors was promising. MnP induced by lignin was found to be highly related to dye decolorization by MnP-YC4. Simulated azo dye-containing wastewater supplemented with a lignin co-substrate (3,5-Dimethoxy-4-hydroxybenzaldehyde) decolorized up to 100, 91, and 76% at final concentrations of 20, 40, and 60%, respectively. MnP-YC4 effectively decolorized the real textile wastewater sample, reaching up to 91.4%, and the COD value decreased significantly during the decolorization, reaching 7160 mg/l within 7 days. A possible dye biodegradation pathway was proposed based on the degradation products identified by UV–vis, FTIR, GC/MS, and HPLC techniques, beginning with azo bond cleavage and eventually mineralized to CO2 and H2O. When compared to the phytotoxic original dye, the phytotoxicity of MnP-YC4 treated dye-containing wastewater samples confirmed the nontoxic nature.