Decolorization of textile reactive dyes by the crude laccase produced from solid-state fermentation of agro-byproducts

Reactive dyes are one of the major sources of waste-water pollution. Efficient degradation of these dyes with enzymes produced from agricultural waste has attracted tremendous recent interests in both the scientific community and the general public. In this study, we took advantage of solid-state fermentation of four agro-byproducts (rape stem, wheat bran, peanut shell and rice hull) for producing laccase from the fungus Trametes sp. AH28-2. Higher laccase activities were obtained in multiple-substrates media than in single substrate media. The maximum yield of laccase (2.10 × 10⁶ U/kg) was obtained in the medium containing 60% rape stem, 20% peanut shell and 20% wheat bran, without the supplement of any toxic inducers. Our results further demonstrated that the textile reactive dyes Levafix Blue CA and Cibacron Blue FN-R (1.0 g/l) were completely decolorized by the crude laccase (5.0 U/l) obtained within 15 h in the absence of any mediator. Therefore, the agro-byproducts could be re-utilized to produce laccase for the decolorization of textile reactive dyes. Q.Y. Sun and Y.Z. Hong contributed equally to the study.