BACKGROUND Photodynamic treatment (PDT) refers to a treatment with light-activated agents (photosensitizers) in combination with visible light and molecular oxygen. Recently, we have demonstrated that the porphyrins, 5,10,15-tris(4-methylpyridinium)-20-phenyl-[21H,23H]-porphine trichloride (Sylsens B) and deuteroporphyrin monomethylester (DP mme) are excellent photosensitizers to be used agains...

The Actinomycetes comprise a ubiquitous order of bacteria which exhibits wide physiological and morphological diversity. These microorganisms are particularly abundant in alkaline soils rich in organic matter. Keratin is an insoluble structural protein of skin, and its derivatives (e.g. feather, hair, wool and horn) are known for their high stability. Actinomycetes producing keratinases are hav...

Keratinases are exciting keratin-degrading enzymes; however, there have been relatively few studies on their immobilization. A keratinolytic protease from Chryseobacterium sp. kr6 was purified and its partial sequence determined using mass spectrometry. No significant homology to other microbial peptides in the NCBI database was observed. Certain parameters for immobilization of the purified ke...

Poultry farms produce huge quantities of feather waste that causes serious local disposal and accumulative problems and results in environmental pollution. Feathers are composed of β-keratin rich protein and are highly resistant to degradation. The feather degradation potential of the non-pathogenic fungus Onygena corvina was investigated by cultivating this fungus in a medium with duck feather...

Abstract Incubation parameters used for the creation of a protein lysate from enzymatically degraded waste feathers using crude keratinase produced by Laceyella sacchari strain YNDH were optimized Response Surface Methodology (RSM); amino acids quantification was also estimated. The optimization elevated total to 2089.5 µg/ml through application following optimal conditions: time 20.2 h, feathe...

Keratinase producing microorganisms are being increasingly utilized for degradation and recycling of poultry feather waste. Two native strains BF11 (Bacillus subtilis) and BF21 (Bacillus cereus) degrading keratin completely were characterized. The native strains produced more than 10 KU/mL of enzyme. Strain improvement resulted in isolation of MBF11 and MBF21 from BF11 and BF21 isolates, respec...

The keratinolytic activities of dermatophytes which parasitize skin, nails, and hair have been described previously (1, 3, 6, 8); however, the isolation of a keratinase from these organisms has not yet been reported. Trichophyton mentagrophytes var. granulosum (T. granulosum Sabouraud, 1909) was grown in a keratin medium composed of (per liter): horse hair, 2.5 g; glucose, 0.9 g; MgSO4.7H20, 0....

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...

A survey of Microsporum gypseum was conducted in soil samples in different geographical regions of Brazil. The isolation of dermatophyte from soil samples was performed by hair baiting technique and the species were identified by morphology studies. We analyzed 692 soil samples and the recuperating rate was 19.2%. The activities of keratinase and elastase were quantitatively performed in 138 sa...

Chicken feathers are valuable solid waste that mainly contains insoluble proteins called keratin. Naturally, keratin is degraded by microbes produce a specific protease keratinase. Many reports have been addressed to study Bacillus species as keratin-degrading microbes. However, most reported works were using pathogenic soil Bacillus. Our work has concentrated on keratinase produced bacterium, ...