Trametes versicolor showed the ability of degrading synthetic dyes such as congo red (CR) and methylene blue (MB) in solid and liquid culture conditions. The T. versicolor strains isolated in Korea degraded MB more efficiently than CR, differently most of other white mushrooms known to have difficulties in degrading MB than other dyes. Thus the Koren strains of T. versicolor showed the commercial potential to be used for cleaning dye-contaminated region without any patent-related problem. The main enzyme responsible for dye deradation was laccase. The manganese peroxidase (MnP) was also detected and supposed to be involved in the degradation process of synthetic dyes. However, no lignin peroxidase (LiP) was detected from degradation process, indicating LiP is not the enzyme T. versicolor use to degrade CR and MB.

The bacterial strain JE-1 degrading and utilizing Congo Red as a sole carbon source was isolated from dye-contaminated soil and identified as Enterobacter species. Enterobacter sp. JE-1 had the highest decolorization ability when it was cultured in the medium containing 0.05% NH_4NO_3, 0.05% K_2HPO_4 0.03% MgSO_4·7H_2O, 0.025% Congo Red, initial pH 7.0 at 30℃, respectively. Enterobacter sp. JE-1 had the relatively high substrate specificity. The dye decolorizing activity was exclusively extracellular. The expected metabolic intermediates of Congo Red by Enterobacter sp. JE-1 were analyzed by GC/MS. As a result, metabolic products like hexadecanoic acid, 1,2,3-triphenylcyclopropene, aliphatic hydrocarbons such as hexadecane, heptadecane, octadecane, hexacosane etc., and 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid, dibutyl ester were detected. Benzidine did not detected.