Bio-prospecting of marine-derived fungi with special reference to production of keratinase enzyme - A need-based optimization study

Abstract

Keratin derived from poultry, and other keratinous waste remains a headache to the human society and also to the nature. Marine fungi -an untapped resource to be exploited specifically for the production of keratinase. In this connection, marine sediment samples were randomly collected from Kovalam located along the south west coast of Tamil Nadu. Two marine-derived fungi were isolated from the sediment samples. The internal transcribed spacer region of the isolates was sequenced, submitted to the GenBank and an individual accession number obtained for Colletotrichum capsici (KY817475) and Curvularia lunata (KY828216). Keratinase enzyme was produced with C. capsici and C. lunata at pH 8.5, and total protein was estimated. The amount of protein produced by C. capsici was found to be 0.91 mg/ml and by C. lunata was 1.06 mg/ml. The molecular weight of keratinase was determined as 35kDa. Four parameters through pH, concentration of feather meal, carbon source, and nitrogen source were optimized during the present study. Keratinase production media inoculated with C. capsici and C. lunata exhibit OD max with respect to feather meal concentration and corresponding OD was 1.264 mg/ml and 0.639 mg/ml. The OD max for C. capsici and C. lunata supplemented with maltose as carbon source was 1.281 mg/ml and 1.426 mg/ml. The OD max for C. capsici and C. lunata supplemented with yeast extract as nitrogen source and corresponding OD was 1.858 mg/ml and 1.613 mg/ml. Thus, we conclude that marine-derived fungi C. capsici and C. lunata are potential producers of ecovaluable keratinase which could be used up to treat the ecological burden created by keratinous waste. INTRODUCTIONSoil-borne microfungi are reported to synthesize a wide variety of hydrolytic enzymes. Still several species are exploited in the industries toward the production of industrially important enzymes such as cellulase, pectinase, carbohydrase, and lipase. A unique class of enzyme called keratinase produced by microfungi population has both biotechnological, biomedical potentials, and ecological benefits. Some clinically important pathogenic dermatophytes such as Trichophyton spp.[1] produce this enzyme to invade the skin tissues. On the other hand, the microbial keratinase has ecovaluable role since it is being applied in the bioconversion of poultry and other keratinous waste. For this purpose keratinases trapped from Streptomyces spp. [2,3] and Bacillus spp. [4,5] have been investigated. Around 24 billion chickens were killed annually consequently 8.5 billion tone of poultry feather *Corresponding Author: Samuel Ponpandian, Department of Biotechnology, Ayya Nadar Janaki Ammal College, Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu, India. Email: drsamuelponpandian@rediffmail.com waste are generated. As per a recent citation from India's leading newspaper that our country alone contributes 350 million tone of poultry waste. Discarded feather causes several ailments to human beings such as chlorosis, mycoplasmosis, and fowl cholera [6]. Poultry waste drenched during the ...

Diversidade enzimática de fungos associados a plantas da Caatinga

“…A bioprospecção de fungos é uma prática realizada por diversos autores (Montoya-Castrillón et al, 2021;Peraza-Jiménez et al, 2022;Samuel et al, 2018;Silva et al, 2011) e representa o primeiro passo necessário para os estudos sobre suas atividades enzimáticas. Diferentemente dos resultados apresentados, em um trabalho de prospecção de fungos realizado por Silva et al, (2011), em um sistema agroflorestal de Pernambuco, a atividade de amilase foi produzida por um maior número de fungos isolados do que a atividade de protease.…”