Progress in Microbial Degradation of Feather Waste

Abstract

Feathers are a major by-product of the poultry industry. They are mainly composed of keratins which have wide applications in different fields. Due to the increasing production of feathers from poultry industries, the untreated feathers could become pollutants because of their resistance to protease degradation. Feathers are rich in amino acids, which makes them a valuable source for fertilizer and animal feeds. Numerous bacteria and fungi exhibited capabilities to degrade chicken feathers by secreting enzymes such as keratinases, and accumulated evidence shows that feather-containing wastes can be converted into value-added products. This review summarizes recent progress in microbial degradation of feathers, structures of keratinases, feather application, and microorganisms that are able to secrete keratinase. In addition, the enzymes critical for keratin degradation and their mechanism of action are discussed. We also proposed the strategy that can be utilized for feather degradation. Based on the accumulated studies, microbial degradation of feathers has great potential to convert them into various products such as biofertilizer and animal feeds.

Microbial Keratinase: Next Generation Green Catalyst and Prospective Applications

“…Tight packing of individual α-helix or β-sheet motifs of the polymer chains into a supercoiled strand confers mechanical stability to the resultant structure (Onifade et al, 1998). Also, keratin is categorized as hard or soft in relation to the sulfur group content, site of occurrence, and functional involvement of the polypeptide (Li, 2019). The keratin in nails, feathers, horns, and hooves are said to be hard due to their involvement in structural and protective roles against predation and abiotic factors, hence the toughness (Wang B. et al, 2016).…”

Proteases in the diet of monogastric animals

“…Главным их преимуществом является способность связываться с нерастворимыми субстратами и расщеплять дисульфидные связи, которые неподатливы действию протеаз других групп (Qiu et al, 2020). Кератиназы способны расщеплять белки растительного и животного происхождения (Lin et al, 1996;Gradišar et al, 2005).…”

“…Выявлено лишь небольшое количество кератиназ, которое соответствует этим требованиям (Huang et al, 2015). Несмотря на прогресс в изучении механизма действия кератиназ, требуются дополнительные исследования для изучения ферментов, разлагающих кератин (Li, 2019).…”

Chemical and microbiological characterization of primary biological aerosol particles at the boreal forest

“…Specifically, arabitol is well known as fungal spore tracer (Jia and Fraser, 2011;Yang et al, 2012). In addition, Pro is a widely recognized degradation product of the organic matter by bacteria and fungi (Li, 2019).…”

“…Bacteria, typical size range from 0.6 to 7.0 µm, can be found in the atmosphere as individual cells, attached to other particles or as an agglomerate (Lighthart, 1997). Bacterial air emission depends on many factors such as seasonality, meteorological factors, variability of bacterial sources and anthropogenic influence (Fang et al, 2018).…”