Exceptionally rich keratinolytic enzyme profile found in the rare actinomycetes Amycolatopsis keratiniphila D2T.

The non-spore forming Gram-positive actinomycetes Amycolatopsis keratiniphila subsp. keratiniphila D2T (DSM 44,409) has a high potential for keratin valorization as demonstrated by a novel biotechnological microbial conversion process consisting of a bacterial growth phase and a keratinolytic phase, respectively. Compared to the most gifted keratinolytic Bacillus species, a very large number of 621 putative proteases are encoded by the genome of Amycolatopsis keratiniphila subsp. keratiniphila D2T, as predicted by using Peptide Pattern Recognition (PPR) analysis. Proteome analysis by using LC-MS/MS on aliquots of the supernatant of A. keratiniphila subsp. keratiniphila D2T culture on slaughterhouse pig bristle meal, removed at 24, 48, 96 and 120 h of growth, identified 43 proteases. This was supplemented by proteome analysis of specific fractions after enrichment of the supernatant by anion exchange chromatography leading to identification of 50 proteases. Overall 57 different proteases were identified corresponding to 30% of the 186 proteins identified from the culture supernatant and distributed as 17 metalloproteases from 11 families, including an M36 protease, 38 serine proteases from 4 families, and 13 proteolytic enzymes from other families. Notably, M36 keratinolytic proteases are prominent in fungi, but seem not to have been discovered in bacteria previously. Two S01 family peptidases, named T- and C-like proteases, prominent in the culture supernatant, were purified and shown to possess a high azo-keratin/azo-casein hydrolytic activity ratio. The C-like protease revealed excellent thermostability, giving promise for successful applications in biorefinery processes. Notably, the bacterium seems not to secrete enzymes for cleavage of disulfides in the keratinous substrates. KEY POINTS: • A. keratiniphila subsp. keratiniphila D2T is predicted to encode 621 proteases. • This actinomycete efficiently converts bristle meal to a protein hydrolysate. • Proteome analysis identified 57 proteases in its secretome.

Community-intrinsic properties enhance keratin degradation from bacterial consortia.

Although organic matter may accumulate sometimes (e.g. lignocellulose in peat bog), most natural biodegradation processes are completed until full mineralization. Such transformations are often achieved by the concerted action of communities of interacting microbes, involving different species each performing specific tasks. These interactions can give rise to novel "community-intrinsic" properties, through e.g. activation of so-called "silent genetic pathways" or synergistic interplay between microbial activities and functions. Here we studied the microbial community-based degradation of keratin, a recalcitrant biological material, by four soil isolates, which have previously been shown to display synergistic interactions during biofilm formation; Stenotrophomonas rhizophila, Xanthomonas retroflexus, Microbacterium oxydans and Paenibacillus amylolyticus. We observed enhanced keratin weight loss in cultures with X. retroflexus, both in dual and four-species co-cultures, as compared to expected keratin degradation by X. retroflexus alone. Additional community intrinsic properties included accelerated keratin degradation rates and increased biofilm formation on keratin particles. Comparison of secretome profiles of X. retroflexus mono-cultures to co-cultures revealed that certain proteases (e.g. serine protease S08) were significantly more abundant in mono-cultures, whereas co-cultures had an increased abundance of proteins related to maintaining the redox environment, e.g. glutathione peroxidase. Hence, one of the mechanisms related to the community intrinsic properties, leading to enhanced degradation from co-cultures, might be related to a switch from sulfitolytic to proteolytic functions between mono- and co-cultures, respectively.

Azo dying of α-keratin material improves microbial keratinase screening and standardization.

Microbial conversion through enzymatic reactions has received a lot of attention as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to recover amino acids and short peptides from keratin materials. However, accurate assessment of microbial keratinase activity is not straightforward, and current available methods lack sensitivity and standardization. Here, we suggest an optimized Azokeratin assay, with substrate generated directly from azo-dyed raw keratin material. We introduced supernatant filtration in the protocol for optimal stopping of keratinase reactions instead of the widely used trichloroacetic acid (TCA), as it generated biases and impacted the sensitivity. We furthermore suggest a method for standardization of keratinase activity signals using proteinase K, a well-known keratinase, as a reference enabling reproducibility between studies. Lastly, we evaluated our developed method with several bacterial isolates through benchmarking against a commercial assay (Keratin Azure). Under different setups, the Azokeratin method was more sensitive than commonly used Keratin Azure-based assays (3-fold). We argue that this method could be applied with any type of keratin substrate, enabling more robust and sensitive results which can be used for further comparison with other studies, thus representing an important progress within the field of microbial keratin degradation.

Two novel S1 peptidases from Amycolatopsis keratinophila subsp. keratinophila D2T degrading keratinous slaughterhouse by-products.

Two proteases, named C- and T-like proteases, respectively, were purified from the culture supernatant of Amycolatopsis keratinophila subsp. keratinophila D2T grown on a keratinous slaughterhouse by-product of pig bristles and nails as sole nitrogen and carbon source. The two proteases belong to peptidase family S1 as identified by mass spectrometric peptide mapping, have low mutual sequence identity (25.8%) and differ in substrate specificity. T-like protease showed maximum activity at 40 °C and pH 8-9, and C-like protease at 60 °C and pH 8-10. Peptides released from the keratinous by-product were identified by mass spectrometry and indicated P1 specificity for arginine and lysine of T-like and alanine, valine and isoleucine of C-like protease as also supported by the activity of the two proteases towards synthetic peptide and amino acid substrates. The specific activities of the C- and T-like proteases and proteinase K on keratin azure and azokeratin were comparable. However, C- and T-like proteases showed 5-10-fold higher keratin/casein (K/C) activity ratios than that of another S1 and two keratin-degrading S8 peptidases used for comparison. The findings support that the range of peptidase families considered to contain keratinases should be expanded to include S1 peptidases. Furthermore, the results indicated the quite thermostable C-like protease to be a promising candidate for use in industrial degradation of keratinous slaughterhouse by-products.

An integrated strategy for the effective production of bristle protein hydrolysate by the keratinolytic filamentous bacterium Amycolatopsis keratiniphila D2.

In a conventional microorganism-mediated biological process for degradation of keratinous waste material the production of keratin-specific proteases (i.e., keratinases) and the hydrolysis of keratin-rich residual biomass both take place during the same stage of the bioprocess and, as a consequence, occur simultaneously under suboptimal conditions. In the present study the keratinolytic actinomycete Amycolatopsis keratiniphila D2 was successfully employed to biodegrade thermally pretreated porcine bristles at high solids loading (16% w/v) via a novel cultivation methodology. Indeed, the two-stage submerged fermentation process developed in this work enabled to efficiently recover, in a single unit operation, about 73% of the protein material contained in the keratinous biowaste structure, resulting in an overall accumulation of 89.3 g·L-1 protein-rich hydrolysate and a productivity of 427 mg crude soluble proteins per litre per hour. The obtained protein hydrolysate powder displayed a 2.2-fold increase in its in vitro pepsin digestibility (95%) with respect to the non-hydrolysed pretreated substrate (43%). In addition, the chromatogram obtained by size-exclusion chromatography analysis of the final product indicated that, among the identified fractions, those consisting of small peptides and free amino acids were the most abundantly present inside the analysed sample. Given these facts it is possible to conclude that the soluble proteins, peptides and free amino acids recovered through the newly designed two-stage bioextraction process could represent a viable alternative source of protein in animal feed formulation.

Pulmonary effects of nanofibrillated celluloses in mice suggest that carboxylation lowers the inflammatory and acute phase responses.

We studied if the pulmonary and systemic toxicity of nanofibrillated celluloses can be reduced by carboxylation. Nanofibrillated celluloses administered at 6 or 18 µg to mice by intratracheal instillation were: 1) FINE NFC, 2-20 µm in length, 2-15 nm in width, 2) AS (-COOH), carboxylated, 0.5-10 µm in length, 4-10 nm in width, containing the biocide BIM MC4901 and 3) BIOCID FINE NFC: as (1) but containing BIM MC4901. FINE NFC administration increased neutrophil influx in BAL and induced SAA3 in plasma. AS (-COOH) produced lower neutrophil influx and systemic SAA3 levels than FINE NFC. Results obtained with BIOCID FINE NFC suggested that BIM MC4901 biocide did not explain the lowered response. Increased DNA damage levels were observed across materials, doses and time points. In conclusion, carboxylation of nanofibrillated cellulose was associated with reduced pulmonary and systemic toxicity, suggesting involvement of OH groups in the inflammatory and acute phase responses.

A Soluble, Folded Protein without Charged Amino Acid Residues.

Charges are considered an integral part of protein structure and function, enhancing solubility and providing specificity in molecular interactions. We wished to investigate whether charged amino acids are indeed required for protein biogenesis and whether a protein completely free of titratable side chains can maintain solubility, stability, and function. As a model, we used a cellulose-binding domain from Cellulomonas fimi, which, among proteins of more than 100 amino acids, presently is the least charged in the Protein Data Bank, with a total of only four titratable residues. We find that the protein shows a surprising resilience toward extremes of pH, demonstrating stability and function (cellulose binding) in the pH range from 2 to 11. To ask whether the four charged residues present were required for these properties of this protein, we altered them to nontitratable ones. Remarkably, this chargeless protein is produced reasonably well in Escherichia coli, retains its stable three-dimensional structure, and is still capable of strong cellulose binding. To further deprive this protein of charges, we removed the N-terminal charge by acetylation and studied the protein at pH 2, where the C-terminus is effectively protonated. Under these conditions, the protein retains its function and proved to be both soluble and have a reversible folding-unfolding transition. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a soluble, functional protein with no titratable side chains has been produced.

Visualization of Nanofibrillar Cellulose in Biological Tissues Using a Biotinylated Carbohydrate Binding Module of ß-1,4-Glycanase.

Nanofibrillar cellulose is a very promising innovation with diverse potential applications including high quality paper, coatings, and drug delivery carriers. The production of nanofibrillar cellulose on an industrial scale may lead to increased exposure to nanofibrillar cellulose both in the working environment and the general environment. Assessment of the potential health effects following exposure to nanofibrillar cellulose is therefore required. However, as nanofibrillar cellulose primarily consists of glucose moieties, detection of nanofibrillar cellulose in biological tissues is difficult. We have developed a simple and robust method for specific and sensitive detection of cellulose fibers, including nanofibrillar cellulose, in biological tissue, using a biotinylated carbohydrate binding module (CBM) of ß-1,4-glycanase (EXG:CBM) from the bacterium Cellulomonas fimi. EXG:CBM was expressed in Eschericia coli, purified, and biotinylated. EXG:CBM was shown to bind quantitatively to five different cellulose fibers including four different nanofibrillar celluloses. Biotinylated EXG:CBM was used to visualize cellulose fibers by either fluorescence- or horse radish peroxidase (HRP)-tagged avidin labeling. The HRP-EXG:CBM complex was used to visualize cellulose fibers in both cryopreserved and paraffin embedded lung tissue from mice dosed by pharyngeal aspiration with 10-200 µg/mouse. Detection was shown to be highly specific, and the assay appeared very robust. The present method represents a novel concept for the design of simple, robust, and highly specific detection methods for the detection of nanomaterials, which are otherwise difficult to visualize.