Role of Microbial Consortia in Dye Degradation and their Phytotoxic Effects

Abstract

The area selected for this research study was 20 km stretch near the Jojari River newline(Jodhpur) and Luni River (Balotra), India. These areas scattered with the multiplicity of newlinetextile industries. Four sites were identified, based on amount of waste water discharged newlineand land and water resources being affected by the waste by various textile units. Samples newlinewere collected in brown capped bottles (wastewater) and sterilized plastic bags (soil) for newlinephysico-chemical and microbiological analysis and maintained at 40 °C. Samples were newlineanalyzed at two steps, first for physico-chemical, heavy metal detection and second step newlinefor the isolation of microbes. The microbial activity was carried out within 48 hour of newlinesample collection. newline newline newlineA series of experiments were conducted to enhance the efficiency of azo dye newlinedegradation. The research was initiated by physico-chemical analysis and heavy metal newlinedetection followed by isolation, identification and characterization of dye degrading newlinemicroorganisms. The wastewater and soil sample at the first site was slightly alkaline in newlinenature (pH 8.9) with reddish in color and dusty smell of wastewater. The EC (4990 newlineµS/cm) found to be very high in wastewater of this running stream whereas very low in newlinesoil sample (0.8 dSm -1 ). The soil and wastewater samples collected from second site were newlinefound alkaline with pH 8.6 (soil) and 8.4 (wastewater) while EC was recorded higher in newlinewastewater (4930 µS/cm) as compared to soil (1.30 dSm -1 ). The wastewater had pungent newlinesmell and dark brown in color. The wastewater collected from RIICO complex of Balotra newlinewas highly acidic (pH 3.8) in nature but soil was neutral (pH 8.0). The EC of both soil newlineand wastewater sample was 0.776 dSm -1 and 13850 µS/cm, respectively. The fourth newlinesampling site was Dumping House of Wastewater Treatment Plant, Balotra for the newlinecollection of soil and wastewater samples. The pH of soil was estimated 8.8 while that of newlinewastewater was estimated 7.7. EC of both wastewater (11900µS/cm) and soil (12.0dSm newline) were in very high range as compared to