| Summary: | The objective of this study was to isolate a potent dye-degrading microbe that can be used to reduce the pollution caused by industrial dyes. Reactive red 198 is an extensively used textile dye and is a major environmental pollutant in water bodies. In this study, a bacterial strain was isolated from sea sediments and identified as Acinetobacter baumannii with 16S rRNA sequencing. The isolated bacteria were immobilized in calcium alginate and decolorization studies were carried out to determine the optimum pH, temperature, dye concentration, inoculum volume, and static/agitated condition using the one factor at a time (OFAT) approach. The Box-Behnken design, a type of response surface methodology, was adopted to improve the degradation efficiency. At 37°C using an inoculum volume of six beads, 96.20% decolorization was observed in 500 mg/L of reactive red 198 after 72 h. Dye degradation was confirmed with UV-visible spectroscopy and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy studies of the dye and degraded metabolites. Microbial toxicity studies using Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and phytotoxicity studies using Vigna radiata proved that the toxicity of the dye was significantly reduced after degradation. We can conclude that the isolated A. baumannii strain is an efficient dye-degrading microbe that can be used to reduce the pollution caused by industrial dyes. Keywords: Immobilization, Box-Behnken design, Response surface methodology, Microbial toxicity, Dye degradation
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