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Keratinase Production by Newly Isolated Antarctic Actinomycete Strains

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Summary

The ability of actinomycete strains newly isolated from Antarctic soils to produce keratinolytic enzymes during growth on sheep wool waste was investigated. The strains which displayed highest keratinase activity and identified as Streptomyces flavis 2BG (mesophilic) and Microbispora aerata IMBAS-11A (thermophilic) were selected for a more detailed analysis. The addition of starch to the growth medium affected keratinase secretion by both strains. After 5 days of cultivation, a 6-fold increase in keratinase activity of strain 11A was observed in the presence of 11 g starch/l and a 9-fold increase in keratinase activity of the strain 2BG in the presence of 5 g starch/l. The results obtained showed that both newly isolated strains are very promising for effective processing of native keratinous wastes. To our knowledge, this is the first report of Antarctic actinomycete strains that were able to grow on keratin-containing wastes by producing keratinolytic enzymes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Microbiology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G. Bonchev str., bl. 26, 1113, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Adriana Gushterova & Evgenia Vasileva-Tonkova

  2. Institute of Organic Chemistry, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G. Bonchev str., bl. 9, Sofia, 1113, Bulgaria

    Elitza Dimova & Peter Nedkov

  3. Laboratorie d’Etude des Interactions des Molecules Alimentaires, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Nantes Cedex 3, 44316, France

    Thomas Haertlé

Authors
  1. Adriana Gushterova
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  2. Evgenia Vasileva-Tonkova
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  3. Elitza Dimova
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  4. Peter Nedkov
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  5. Thomas Haertlé
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Correspondence to Evgenia Vasileva-Tonkova.

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Gushterova, A., Vasileva-Tonkova, E., Dimova, E. et al. Keratinase Production by Newly Isolated Antarctic Actinomycete Strains. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 21, 831–834 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-004-2241-1

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