Azo dyes play an important role as coloring agents in the textile, food, and pharmaceutical industries. They offer straightforward and cost-effective synthesis, stability, and a wider variety of colors than natural dyes [1][2][3]. Azo dyes absorb light in the visible spectrum due to their chemical structures, which are characterized by one or more azo groups (R1-N=N-R2) [4]. The azo can be substituted with benzene or naphthalene groups; they can contain many different substituents, such as chloro (-Cl), methyl (CH 3 ), nitro (NO 2 ), amino (NH 2 ), hydroxyl (-OH) or carboxyl (-COOH), all of which increase solubility and fixation to fibers [4]. Unfortunately, during manufacturing and use, approximately 10-15% of the dye has been reported to be released into the environment [5,6]. This wastewater is hazardous because some dyes and transformation products are mutagenic or carcinogenic [7,8].Most remediation approaches have focused on degradation by microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, and algae [9,10]. Among these, bacterial decolorization operates faster and more efficiently [10,11]. Bacteria from the genus Paenibacillus are isolated from a variety of environments and are pertinent to humans, animals and plants [12]. Mostly discovered in soil as they are related to the roots of plants, these rhizobacteria support plant growth and development [13,14]. They are used for remediation of various industrial wastes, including petroleum, textiles, pulp and paper, and other chemical industry byproducts that unintentionally or intentionally release large amounts of organic pollutant compounds or heavy metals. They can degrade contaminants in wastewater or at the site of environmental leaks, including fluoranthene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and benzo[a]anthracene [15][16][17].The essentials affecting the decolorization and biodegradation of azo dye are temperature, pH, dye structure, dye concentration, level of agitation, oxygen, supplementation of different carbon and nitrogen sources, electron donor and redox mediator. All of these straightforwardly influence bacterial decolorization in the biological treatment process, making it more effective, faster, and virtually applicable. Tolerance to high pH is critical for A total of 37 bacterial isolates were obtained from dye-contaminated soil samples at a textile processing factory in Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Thailand, and the potential of the isolates to decolorize and biotransform azo dye Reactive Red 141 (RR141) was investigated. The most potent bacterium was identified as Paenibacillus terrigena KKW2-005, which showed the ability to decolorize 96.45% of RR141 (50 mg/l) within 20 h under static conditions at pH 8.0 and a broad temperature range of 30-40°C. The biotransformation products were analyzed by using UV-Vis spectrophotometry and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy analysis revealed four metabolites generated from the reductive biodegradation, namely sodium 3-diazenylnaphthalene-1,5-disulfonate (I), sodium naph...