Wheat bran as an efficient agro-process waste for enhanced yellow laccase production by Lentinus tigrinus SSB_W2 and its application in anthraquinone dye degradation.

Lentinus tigrinus SSB_W2, isolated from Mahabaleshwar in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, India, was employed to enhance laccase production in solid-state fermentation (SSF). The spectral analysis indicated that the laccase produced by L. tigrinus is a typical yellow laccase, exhibiting no absorption at 600 nm. Notably, this yellow laccase demonstrated exceptional catalytic activity, as confirmed by electrochemical analysis. Four agricultural processing wastes were evaluated as substrates for SSF, and the results showed that L. tigrinus effectively utilized wheat bran. Initial testing by one-factor-at-a-time method showed 3.79-fold increase in yellow laccase production, which subsequently increased to 6.51-fold after Plackett-Burman design. Moreover, employing response surface methodology resulted in 11.87-fold increase (108,472 IU gds-1) in laccase production. The utilization of yellow laccase for the biotransformation of various textile dyes was investigated, and it exhibited the highest degradation efficiency toward Reactive blue 4, a recalcitrant anthraquinone dye, with a rate of 18.36 mg L-1 h-1, for an initial concentration of 1000 mg L-1. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-023-03881-9.