EVALUATION OF THREE STRAINS OF Pleurotus eryngii ISOLATED FROM GEOGRAPHICALLY DIFFERENT REGIONS OF TURKEY FOR THEIR ABILITY TO DECOLORIZE METHYLENE BLUE AND CHRYSTAL VIOLET

In this study, the ability to decolorize two chemically different synthetic dyes (methylene blue and crystal violet) by Pleurotus eryngii strains collected from geographically different regions of Turkey was evaluated on agar plates in static liquid cultures. For all strains, growth and decolorization halos were determined on malt extract agar plates containing 0.4 and 0.6 g/L of crystal violet (CV) or methylene blue (MB). Each P. eryngii strain showed certain decolorization capacities and was able to decolorize both MB and CV under static liquid culture conditions, but not to the same extent. The presence of the dyes in static liquid culture reduced the biomass production of all strains in comparison with control culture growing in the medium without dyes. In solid medium, a positive correlation was found between growth halo and decolorization halo.