Textile industry discharges a vast amount of unused synthetic dyes in effluents. The discharge of these
effluents into rivers and lakes leads to a reduction in sunlight penetration in natural water bodies,
which, in turn, decreases both photosynthetic activity and dissolved oxygen concentration rendering
it toxic to living beings. This paper describes the decolorization potential of a local white rot fungus,
Coriolus versicolor IBL-04 for practical industrial effluents collected from five different textile industries
of Faisalabad, Pakistan. Screening of C. versicolor IBL-04 on five effluents showed best decolorization
results (36.3%) for Arzoo Textile Industry (ART) effluent in 6 days followed by Crescent Textile Industry
(CRT), Itmad Textile Industry (ITT), Megna Textile Industry (MGT) and Ayesha Textile Industry (AST)
effluents. Optimization of different process parameters for ART effluent decolorization by C. versicolor
IBL-04 showed that manganese peroxidase (MnP) (486 U/mL) was the lignolytic enzyme present in the
culture filtrates with undetectable lignin peroxidase (LiP) and laccase. The MnP synthesis and effluent
decolorization could be enhanced to 725 U/mL and 84.4%, respectively, with a significant time reduction
to 3 days by optimizing pH and temperature and using 1% starch as a supplementary carbon
source.