A wild type Streptomyces strain BA7 which was isolated from soil, showed a high keratinolytic activity when cultured on native feather medium. Optimum keratinolytic activity was observed at 50 oC and pH 8.5 when using fluid supernatant obtained from aerated culture of this organism. The keratinolytic activity was completely stable (100%) between 30 and 60 oC. The molecular weight of crude enzym...

Prions-infectious agents involved in transmissible spongiform encephalopathies-normally survive proteolytic and mild protein-destructive processes. Using bacterial keratinase produced by Bacillus licheniformis strain PWD-1, we tested conditions to accomplish the full degradation of prion protein (PrP) in brain-stem tissue from animals with bovine spongiform encephalopathy and scrapie. The detec...

An extracellular keratinase from Bacillus pumilus KS12 was purified by DEAE ion exchange chromatography. It was a 45 kDa monomer as determined by SDS PAGE analysis. It was found to be an alkaline, serine protease with pH and temperature optima of 10 and 60°C, respectively. It was thiol activated with two- and eight-fold enhancement in presence of 10 mM DTT and β-mercaptoethanol, respectively. I...

Microbial degradation of keratinous wastes is preferred over physicochemical methods as the latter is costlier and not eco-friendly. Novel habitats are promising for discovery of new microbial strains. Towards discovery of novel keratinolytic bacteria, screening of bacterial strains from a novel limestone habitat in Hundung, Manipur, India was done and a promising isolate, MBRL 575, was found t...

Four extracellular keratinases (designated KI, KII, KIII, and KIV) were produced during submerged aerobic cultivation in a medium containing native human foot skin (NHFS) for enzyme synthesis. The molecular weights, determined by SDS-PAGE, were 25, 50, 34, and 19 kDa, respectively. Gel filtration of the four purified enzymes in native conditions indicated that active keratinase KI is a novel ho...

A novel feather-degrading Bacillus Sp. was isolated from chick manure. The bacterium produces keratinolytic enzyme using chicken feather as a sole of carbon and nitrogen source. The effect of temperature, pH on keratinase production of this keratinolytic strain was studied. Maximum enzyme activities were obtained within 48 hrs (780U/ml) of cultivation. The optimal conditions for the keratinolyt...