Characterization of Keratin Degrading Alkaliphiles

Abstract

Feather which mainly contains Keratin is one of the main poultry industry wastes and at the same time with high nutritional value if converted to soluble form. In this study, we isolated and characterized four alkaliphilic bacteria for their ability to degrade feather under alkaline conditions. Two of the isolates have been identified as Lysinibacillus spp. and both of them are growing optimally at 30 °C and pH 9. The others were identified as Micrococcus sp. and Nocardiopsis sp. and both of them showed optimum growth at 37 °C and pH 10.5. All the isolates are promising and potential tools that could be used for keratin degradation.

Chicken Feather Degradation by Keratinolytic Aspergillus Species Isolated From Feather Waste Dumping Soil

“…Chicken feathers predominantly consist of a highly insoluble, mechanically stable fibrous protein called as keratin, hence further processing is needed to degrade keratin into simpler forms (Cheong et al, 2017;Fitriyanto et al, 2022). Keratin is rich in glycine, alanine, serine, cysteine, arginine and valine and small quantities of lysine, methionine and tryptophan (Elsayed et al, 2016). The structural organization of keratin, its bonds and hydrophobic interactions make it difficult to degrade by nature (Adelina et al, 2021).…”