Abstract
A keratin-degrading strain of Bacillus licheniformis (K-508) was isolated from partially-degraded feathers and characterised. It had high chicken feather-degrading activity when cultured in feather-containing broth, with a growth optimum at pH 7 and 47 °C. Broth filtrates were active towards N-Bz-Phe-Val-Arg-p-nitroanilide and N-Suc-Ala-Ala-Pro-Phe-p-nitroanilide, as chromogenic protease substrates at pH 8. Strain K-508 displays keratinolytic activity against native feather keratin (without any pretreatment) in the presence of SH-reducing compounds. It constitutively secreted both trypsin-like and chymotrypsin-like proteases.
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Rozs, M., Manczinger, L., Vágvölgyi, C. et al. Fermentation characteristics and secretion of proteases of a new keratinolytic strain of Bacillus licheniformis . Biotechnology Letters 23, 1925–1929 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013746103442
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013746103442