How does face recognition emerge in the newborn brain? To address this question, we used an automated controlled-rearing method with a newborn animal model: the domestic chick (Gallus gallus). This automated method allowed us to examine chicks' face recognition abilities at the onset of both face experience and object experience. In the first week of life, newly hatched chicks were raised in co...

Feathers are appendages of skin in avians and provide a model for analyzing skin appendage morphogenesis. The feathers of Chinese Silky (CS) and White Leghorn (WL) chickens have distinct phenotypes. Based on preliminary genetic results, we cloned the chicken gene sobp (encoding sine oculis binding protein homolog, which is expressed at a higher level in the dorsal skin and in the feather follic...

The large amounts of feathers produced by the poultry industry, that is considered as a waste was explored for possible uses in various industries, such as meals for animals, biofuels, biodegradable plastic materials, combating water pollution and more. That review mentions these uses, but concentrate on the utilization of feathers for the diagnosis of viral infections and for monitoring vaccin...

Birds can be classified into altricial and precocial. The hatchlings of altricial birds are almost naked, whereas those of precocial birds are covered with natal down. This regulatory divergence is thought to reflect environmental adaptation, but the molecular basis of the divergence is unclear. To address this issue, we chose the altricial zebra finch and the precocial chicken as the model ani...

An efficient keratinolytic strain of Stenorophomonas maltophilia KB13 was isolated from feather disposal site of Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India. The strain could metabolize 10 g/l chicken feathers as sole source of carbon and nitrogen. Soluble protein, amino acid, and cysteine content were found to be maximum (690.6 ± 8.7, 688.9 ± 9.12 and 21 ± 0.36 µg/ml, respectively) at late logarithmic phase...

The waste chicken feathers were treated with the enzymes (dissociating disulfide bonds) produced by thermophilic Meiothermus ruber H328, and then milled subjected to hot-press compression molding. It was found that recrystallization of feather keratin interfered some extent due lack S-S bonds. On other hand, slight reinforcement resin wood fibers effective enhance tensile behavior thermal stabi...

We are interested in using retroviral vectors to trace cell lineage and to introduce exogenous genes in chicken skin explant cultures. Here the LZ10 virus carrying the gene encoding beta-galactosidase was introduced to the skin explants by two different means: a) the virus was added to the media or b) the virus was microinjected into regions of the developing feather buds. Infection by microinj...

The present study was aimed at isolating a potential keratinase producing bacteria from chicken feathers collected from poultry waste sites in and around Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, and optimising the parameters for the enzyme production. The strain was identified as Bacillus licheniformis KMBVP based on 16srRNA gene sequencing. The strain showed high keratinolytic activity when cultured in feather...

The aim of this study was to characterize keratinolytic bacteria isolated from feather waste. Four isolates were selected after growth on solid medium with feather meal as sole carbon and nitrogen source and screened for proteolytic activity on milk agar plates. Three isolates were Gram-negative (belonged to the genera Burkholderia, Chryseobacterium and Pseudomonas) and one was Gram-positive (M...

The present research was conducted to extract keratin protein from chicken feathers. Protein is an important nutrient needed by our body to maintain body structures and is an important ingredient for cosmetic products. Chicken feathers have high level of keratin protein content and can become a suitable protein source. The main processes involved are first dissolving chicken feathers using diff...