Exploring the potential of a newly constructed manganese peroxidase-producing yeast consortium for tolerating lignin degradation inhibitors while simultaneously decolorizing and detoxifying textile azo dye wastewater.

[Display omitted] • 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 CO 2 and H 2 O. When compared to the phytotoxic original dye, the phytotoxicity of MnP-YC4 treated dye-containing wastewater samples confirmed the nontoxic nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]