From Single to Complex Pollutants: In-silico Tools to Decipher the Decisive Role of Basidiomycetous Fungi for Dye Transformation

The industrial discharge of synthetic dyes from textile production and related processes creates environmental contamination because these synthetic dyes exist as complex pollutant mixtures instead of single harmful substances. Basidiomycetous fungi serve as potential biocatalysts for dye transformation research because their extracellular enzymes function as ligninolytic systems which include laccases and manganese peroxidases and lignin peroxidases to activate oxidative processes that affect multiple aromatic compounds. The review studies how basidiomycetes use enzymes to transform dyes through three processes which involve radical oxidation and mediator reactions and the creation of metabolic intermediate products that exist in different dye categories. The research paper examines three analytical methods which include spectrophotometry and chromatography and spectroscopic techniques to assess how these methods can differentiate between apparent decolorization and actual chemical changes and mineralization processes. The research uses omics studies to produce system-level insights which show how extracellular oxidative processes connect with intracellular metabolic pathways. The assessment identifies methodological research limitations in current research through three main factors which include simplified experimental systems and limited metabolite identification and study variability. The research discusses three emerging computational methods which include molecular docking and biodegradation pathway prediction frameworks and machine-learning models as tools that support experimental studies by explaining how enzymes interact with substrates and how dyes transform in natural ecosystems.