EFFICIENT REMOVAL OF DISPERSE DYE BY MIXED CULTURE OF Ganoderma lucidum AND Coriolus versicolor

In the current study, an attempt was made to check the potential of aerobic mixed culture of two indigenous white rot fungi for the decolorization of different disperse dyes in batch culture mode and optimization of different conditions to enhance the biotransformation of dyes. initial screening trial with six disperse dyes, viz. (foron yellow rd5gl, foron red rdrbls, foron rubine rdgfl, foron black rd3grn, foron blue rdgln and foron turquoise sbln), was carried out using mixed culture of ganoderma lucidum and coriolus versicolor. from all the tested dyes, the mixed culture showed better removal efficiency (93 %) with foron turquoise sbln dye after 8 days of incubation period as compared to other tested dyes. enhanced color removal (98 %) was observed when the medium was amended by ammonium tartarate, maltose, mnso4 at ph 4.5 and 30˚c with 2 ml fungal culture during 2nd day of incubation period. enzyme profile showed that the mixed culture produced three liginolytic enzymes like lignin peroxidase (lip), manganase peroxidase (mnp) and laccase but mnp was found to be the major enzyme. the results indicated that white rot fungi (wrf) could be used to treat wastewater containing disperse dyes.