Resumo

In the last years biotechnology has turned promising and represents numerous advantages in the processes for achieving products of social and economic interests. In this context, fungi have been developed as an important role in the bioconservation process, due to their ability to form products of interest, like enzymes. During this process, fungi release different enzymes, including those related to vinasse discoloration, a highly colored effluent with a high pollutant potential when disposed in the environment. In this context, Pleurotus sajor-caju is a basidiomycete capable of tolerating very high concentrations of organic pollutants, which allows the employment in bioremediation, while the manganese peroxidase is the most common ligninase produced by white rot basidiomycetes and some others decomposing fungi. Thus, the aim of this work was the determination of the activity of manganese peroxidase enzyme during the bioremediation process by P. sajor-caju basidiomycete in vinasse obtained from fermentation of molasses, which is a sugarcane industry residue. For this, after the vinasse pH to be adjusted to 6.0 and all volume to be autoclaved, the fungus were inoculated and experiments conducted during a period of 16 days at a temperature of 28oC +/- 1 oC, shaking at 180 rpm. The activity of manganese peroxidase was obtained from supernatants, measured every 48 hours, in triplicate for each sample by the absorbance readings in spectrophotometer (610 nm). Absorbance readings were also performed for determining the discoloration. According to the results, it was verified that the maximum activity was achieved at the 13th day, indicating that the nutritional reduction factor is probably the responsible for the synthesis of manganese peroxidase. Therefore the analysis showed that the vinasse color reduction was coincident with the enzymatic activity maximum peak. Thus, this work concluded that the system P. sajor-caju/vinasse is a promising treatment system that can probably be used as a bioprocess for color removal and degradation of complex vinasse compounds since it was observed an improvement in the characteristics and detoxification allowing its utilization as reused water, manganese-peroxidase enzymes production and/or for fungal biomass production with a high nutritional value.Acknowledgements: Bioexx Biotecnologia Ambiental Ltda., CNPq, CAPES, FAPESP and FAPITEC/SE for their financial support