Strain improvement of a new keratinolytic fungi

Keratinase is a protease enzyme. It degrades the keratin protein present in the hair, skin, nails etc. It can be applied in various fields of therapeutics such as in the treatment of onychomycosis, hair dandruff and recently in skin cancer as well. It can also be applied in various textile and leather industries. The SPF1 fungi isolated from the poultry farm around Manipal, India was found to produce the inducible keratinase enzyme. The strain was exposed to UV radiation to induce the UV mutation and the yield was found to have improved from 147.52µg/ml to 288.00µg/ml. The SPF1 strain was also plated in Sabouraud Dextrose Agar and 8 different colonies were selected to compare their keratinolytic activities.