Keratinase

Keratinases are proteolytic enzymes in nature. They were classified as proteinases of unknown mechanism as recommended by the Nomenculture Committee on the International Union of Biochemistry (1978) with EC number 3.4.99 (Owen et al., 1983). Recently, some researchers defined keratinase as a serine protease due to its 97% sequence homology with alkaline protease, and it is also inhibited by the same inhibitor that inhibits serine protease (Wang et al., 1995; Taha et al., 1998 and Bressollier et a1., 1999).