The aim of this study was to find the optimal conditions of a newly isolated Streptomyces strain JRS 19. Screening for keratinase producing bacteria and their keratinase production were investigated. The keratinase produced by the isolate was purified by chromatographic techniques and the optimum pH maintained was 7.0 and maintained at different temperatures Viz., 20ºC, 25ºC, 30ºC, 35ºC and 40º...

Introduction Keratins are the most abundant proteins in epithelial cells of vertebrates and represent the major constituents of skin and its appendages such as nail, hair, feather, and wool1. Keratins are fibrous and insoluble structural proteins extensively cross-linked with disulphide, hydrophobic, and hydrogen bonds2-3. Their high degree of cross-linking by disulfide bonds, hydrophobic inter...

Three Bacillus species (B. subtilis LFB-FIOCRUZ 1270, B. subtilis LFB-FIOCRUZ 1273, and B. licheniformis LFB-FIOCRUZ 1274), isolated from the poultry industry, were evaluated for keratinase production using feathers or feather meal as the sole carbon and nitrogen sources in a submerged fermentation. The three Bacillus spp. produced extracellular keratinases and peptidases after 7 days. Feather ...

Molted feather sampling is a useful tool for genetic analyses of endangered species, but it is often very laborious due to the low quality and quantity of the DNA obtained. In the present study we show the parts of feathers that resulted in better yield of DNA. In descending order these were: blood clot outside the umbilicus, umbilicus (without blood clot), tip, inner membrane, and small calamu...

1. The formation of the feather pattern has been studied in skin explants obtained from the lumbar region of the spinal pteryla of 6\to 7^-day chick embryos. Explants were cultured in vivo on the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) or in vitro, either on semi-solid natural media (containing whole chick embryo extract (J£) or chick brain extract (EC)), or in a liquid synthetic medium (199). 2. Feathe...

A tremendous diversity of avian color displays has stimulated numerous studies of natural and sexual selection. Yet, the developmental mechanisms that produce such diversification, and thus the proximate targets of selection pressures, are rarely addressed and poorly understood. In particular, because feathers are colored during growth, the dynamics of feather growth play a deterministic role i...

Variation in avian coloration is produced by coordinated pigmentation of thousands of growing feathers that vary in shape and size. Although the functional consequences of avian coloration are frequently studied, little is known about its developmental basis, and, specifically, the rules that link feather growth to pigment uptake and synthesis. Here, we combine biochemical, modeling, and morpho...

The identification of bird species from feather fragments is useful in many disciplines, including forensic science. Feather evidence can be helpful to criminal investigations in demonstrating physical contact between clothing manufactured with down feathers, or it may provide specific links to the crime scene by identifying the species or group of birds from which the feather evidence came. Th...

Fault bars are common stress-induced feather abnormalities that could produce feather damage thus reducing flight performance. For that reason, it has been hypothesized that birds may have evolved adaptive strategies that reduce the costs of fault bars (the ‘fault bar allocation hypothesis’). An untested prediction of this hypothesis is that fault bars in important feathers for flight (wing and...

A new Streptomyces sp. IF 5 was isolated from the feather dumped soil and found to have a tremendous keratinase activity. The strain enabled the degradation of the chicken feathers very effectively in 60 h. The 16S rRNA sequence of 1474 bp long was submitted to the National centre for Biotechnological information. The keratinolytic activity in the culture medium was 1181 U/ml. The release and a...