Enrichment of microbial consortia with efficient keratinolytic activity

The aim of this study was to screen and identify microbial communities able to perform an efficient degradation of mixed α-keratin materials. A soil-born microbial consortium was enriched, using α-keratin as the sole carbon source, in sequential batch cultivations at 24 °C. Characteristics and compositional changes of bacterial consortia over time were investigated with keratinolytic activity assays and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing.