Walk past a textile manufacturing unit and the scene can be full of colour — bright fabrics moving through machines, vats of dye transforming plain cloth into vibrant shades, and water being used through several stages of the process.

But once those colours have done their job, they can become an environmental problem.

The wastewater released by textile industries can contain synthetic dyes that are difficult to break down. Among them are azo dyes, a group of synthetic colourants known for their chemical stability. If untreated wastewater enters rivers or other water bodies, these pollutants can pose risks to aquatic ecosystems and may also have implications for human health.

Now, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati have found a biological way to tackle one such dye, using something much smaller than the industrial systems that usually treat wastewater: bacteria.

A bacterium that eats away at the problem

The researchers have identified a novel bacterium called Brevundimonas sp. AJZ05, which was isolated from a native textile effluent discharge site.

In laboratory experiments, the bacterium degraded 98.50% of Direct Blue-6 (DB-6), a commonly used synthetic azo dye.

Azo dyes contain a chemical structure called an azo bond (–N=N–). This bond contributes to their strong colour and stability but also makes them difficult to remove through conventional wastewater treatment.

The researchers found that Brevundimonas sp. AJZ05........

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