Production of recombinant keratinase for poultry feather degradation

Sammanfattning: The keratinase gene (kerA) of Bacillus licheniformis ATCC®53757 was PCR amplified and subsequently cloned into Bacillus megaterium expression vector; pHIS1525.SPlipA and transformed in Bacillus megaterium ATCC®14945. The kerA gene carrying the recombinant plasmid pKERHIS1525.SPlipA was expressed in Bacillus megaterium under xylose inducible promoter, purified using Ni-NTA affinity column chromatography and consequently produced an extracellular keratinase activity of 29 U ml-1 after 18 h of incubation. The recombinant strain was further examined for feather degradation of intact chicken feathers. The chopped chicken feathers were partially degraded by the recombinant strain after 3days and the total macroscopic digestion was ultimately observed after seven days resulting in a yellowish peptide rich fermentation broth.