Bioaccumulation of synthetic dyes viz. Acid Blue 93, Direct Red 28 and Basic Violet 3 by growing cells of yeast, Pichia fermentans MTCC 189 was investigated in growth media prepared from sugarcane bagasse extract. The maximum dye bioaccumulation was determined at pH 5.0 for all the dyes tested. Two kinetic models viz. Noncompetitive and Uncompetitive models were tested in order to determine the toxic effects of dyes on the specific growth rate of P. fennentans MTCC 189. Basic Violet 3 was found to be more toxic than the other two dyes. The combined effects of sugarcane bagasse extract and initial Basic Violet 3 dye concentrations on the specific growth rate and dye bioaccumulation efficiency of P. fermentans MTCC 189 was investigated and optimized using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). A 2(2) full factorial central composite design was successfully used for analysis of results. The optimum combination predicted via RSM confirmed that P. fermentans MTCC 189 was capable of bioaccumulating Basic Violet 3 dye upto 69.8% in the medium containing 10 mg/L of dye and 24 g/L sugar extracted from sugarcane bagasse. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.