Skip to main content
Applied Biological Chemistry
Download PDF
  • Original Article
  • Bioactive Materials
  • Published:

Isolation and characterization of alkaliphilic and thermotolerant bacteria that reduce insoluble indigo to soluble leuco-indigo from indigo dye vat

Journal of the Korean Society for Applied Biological Chemistry volume 55, pages 83–88 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Indigo dye has been used in the textile dye industry for long period. Insoluble indigo are reduced to soluble leuco-indigo before dying textiles. A traditional process for solubilization of indigo using microbial reduction metabolism has been considered as environmentally benign method and as alternative to faster chemical reactions. Thus, fermentation liquor aged for 6 years with Polygonum tinctorium (indigo plant) extracts was used to isolate bacteria able to reduce insoluble indigo. Two bacterial isolates, A1 and G5, showed indigo-reducing activity, and were identified as Alkalibacterium sp. and Pseudomonas sp. respectively, with 99% sequence similarity by 16S rDNA sequence analyses. Based on the concentrations of leuco-indigo reduced from indigo, Alkalibacterium sp. A1 and Pseudomonas sp. G5 showed alkaliphilic and thermotolerant charactertistics, optimally functioning at pH 10.0 and 50°C. Isolation of alkaliphilic and thermotolerant bacterial strains, which can reduce insoluble indigo into leuco-indigo, from Korean traditional fermentation liquor could provide a biological tool to enhance efficiency in the traditional indigo dye by an environmentally friendly manner.

References

  • Aino K, Narihiro T, Minamida K, Kamagata Y, Yoshimune K, and Yumoto I (2010) Bacterial community characterization and dynamics of indigo fermentation. Fems Microbiol Ecol 74, 174–183.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ammar S, Abdelhedi R, Flox C, Arias C, and Brillas E (2006) Electrochemical degradation of the dye indigo carmine at boron-doped diamond anode for wastewaters remediation. Environ Chem Lett 4, 229–233.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bozic M and Kokol V (2008) Ecological alternatives to the reduction and oxidation processes in dyeing with vat and sulphur dyes. Dyes Pigment 76, 299–309.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bozic M, Diaz-Gonzalez M, Tzanov T, Guebitz G M, and Kokol V (2009) Voltametric monitoring of enzyme-mediated indigo reduction in the presence of various fibre materials. Enzyme Microbial Technol 45, 317–323.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Clark R (1993) Indigo, woad, and tyrian purple: Important vat dyes from antiquity to the present. Endeavour 17, 191–199.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Compton RG, Perkin SJ, Gamblin DP, Davis J, Marken F, Nikki Padden A, and John P (2000) Clostridium isatidis colonised carbon electrodes: voltammetric evidence for direct solid state redox processes. New J Chem 24, 179–181.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Domenech A, Domenech-Carbo MT, and Pascual MLVD (2007) Electrochemical monitoring of indigo preparation using Maya’s ancient procedures. J Solid State Electrochem 11, 1335–1346.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kawahito M and Yasukawa R (2009) Characteristics of Color Produced by Awa Natural Indigo and Synthetic Indigo. Materials 2, 661–673.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kim MK (2010) A Study on the Dyeing Conditions and Properties of Cotton Fabric Dyed with Natural Polygoum Tinctoria. MS Thesis, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim SU, Song KS, Jung DS, Chae YA, and Lee HJ (1996) Production of indoxyl derivatives in indole-supplemented tissue cultures of Polygonum tinctorium. Planta Med 62, 54–56.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar S, Tamura K, Dudley J, and Nei M (2007) MEGA4: Molecular evolutionary genetics analysis (MEGA) software version 4.0. Mol Biol Evol 24, 1596–1599.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Padden AN, John P, Collins MD, Hutson R, and Hall AR (2000) Indigoreducing Clostridium isatidis isolated from a variety of sources, including a 10th-century viking dye vat. J Archaeol Sci 27, 953–956.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saitou N and Nei M (1987) The neighbor-joining method: a new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. Mol Biol Evol 4, 406–425.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sarethy IP, Saxena Y, Kapoor A, Sharma M, Sharma SK, Gupta V, and Gupta S (2011) Alkaliphilic bacteria: Applications in industrial biotechnology. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 38, 769–790.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt H (1997) Indigo — 100 jahre industrielle synthese. Chem Unserer Zeit 31, 121–128.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Song KS, Shim JY, Jung DS, and Kim SU (2011) Origin of oxygen in indoxyl-derivatives of Polygonum tinctorium L. as probed by 18O2 feeding. J Appl Bio Chem 54, 340–344.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Takahara Y, Takasaki Y, and Tanabe O (1962) Studies on the reduction of indigo in industrial fermentation vat (XXI). J Ferment Technol 40, 103–107.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yumoto I, Hirota K, Nodasaka Y, Tokiwa Y, and Nakajima K (2008) Alkalibacterium indicireducens sp nov., an obligate alkaliphile that reduces indigo dye. Int J Syst Evol Microbial 58, 901–905.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju, 500-712, Republic of Korea

    Sunhwa Park, Jiyoung Seo & Hor-Gil Hur

  2. Marine Biotechnology Research Center, Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute, Ansan, 426-744, Republic of Korea

    Ji-Young Ryu

Authors
  1. Sunhwa Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ji-Young Ryu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jiyoung Seo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Hor-Gil Hur
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hor-Gil Hur.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Park, S., Ryu, JY., Seo, J. et al. Isolation and characterization of alkaliphilic and thermotolerant bacteria that reduce insoluble indigo to soluble leuco-indigo from indigo dye vat. J Korean Soc Appl Biol Chem 55, 83–88 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13765-012-0014-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13765-012-0014-3

Keywords