Degradation of Synthetic Dyes with Plant-Produced Manganese Peroxidase and Commercial Laccase

Contamination of the environment directly impacts animal, plant, and human health, as well as agricultural production. A potential solution tested in this work incorporates the use of enzymes from fungi, manganese (Mn) peroxidase (MnP) and laccase, to degrade pollutants. Unfortunately, the MnP is too expensive to produce (more than US$24,000 per gram) to be used in remediation applications. MnP from a corn kernel biofactory can be produced in large amounts, and at <US$5 per gram, would be cost-effective in this application and resolve pollution issues. Two formulations of recombinant MnP from the corn kernel production system and commercial fungal laccase have been tested for degradation of synthetic dyes in an aqueous environment. Numerous concentrations of four synthetic azo or anthraquinone dyes were used. All dyes were partially or completely degraded by both enzymes.