Proteases are ubiquitous enzymes that occur in various biological systems ranging from microorganisms to higher organisms. Microbial proteases are largely utilized in various established industrial processes. Despite their numerous industrial applications, they are not efficient in hydrolysis of recalcitrant, protein-rich keratinous wastes which result in environmental pollution and health hazards. This paved the way for the search of keratinolytic microorganisms having the ability to hydrolyze "hard to degrade" keratinous wastes. This new class of proteases is known as "keratinases". Due to their specificity, keratinases have an advantage over normal proteases and have replaced them in many industrial applications, such as nematicidal agents, nitrogenous fertilizer production from keratinous waste, animal feed and biofuel production. Keratinases have also replaced the normal proteases in the leather industry and detergent additive application due to their better performance. They have also been proved efficient in prion protein degradation. Above all, one of the major hurdles of enzyme industrial applications (cost effective production) can be achieved by using keratinous waste biomass, such as chicken feathers and hairs as fermentation substrate. Use of these low cost waste materials serves dual purposes: to reduce the fermentation cost for enzyme production as well as reducing the environmental waste load. The advent of keratinases has given new direction for waste management with industrial applications giving rise to green technology for sustainable development.

Field experiment was conducted at G.B.P.U.A.T. Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India in rainy season of 2008 and 2009 to study the impacts of increased nitrogen doses on growth dynamics, biomass partitioning, chaffy grain and nitrogen use efficiency in 4 rice genotypes viz., Vasumati, Tulsi, Kasturi and Krishna Hamsa. Four doses (N0, N50, N100 and N200 kg N ha−1) of nitrogen in the form of urea were applied in 3 split. Increased trend in growth dynamics during active tillering and flowering stage, and biomass partitioning at the time of active tillering and flowering stage was observed with respect to nitrogen doses. Chaffy grain number and chaffy grain weight per 5 panicles was significantly increased with enhancing nitrogen doses and was highest for Vasumati. Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) was increased up to N100 kg N ha−1 and it was declined with rising nitrogen doses (N200 kg N ha−1). The highest values for NUE was achieved by rice genotype Krishna Hamsa whereas lowest by Vasumati. In addition to this, a sign...

Recent crop production studies have aimed at an increase in the biotic and abiotic tolerance of plant communities, along with increased nutrient availability and crop yields. This can be achieved in various ways, but one of the emerging approaches is to understand the phytomicrobiome structure and associated chemical communications. The phytomicrobiome was characterized with the advent of high-throughput techniques. Its composition and chemical signaling phenomena have been revealed, leading the way for “rhizosphere engineering”. In addition to the above, phytomicrobiome studies have paved the way to best tackling soil contamination with various anthropogenic activities. Agricultural lands have been found to be unbalanced for crop production. Due to the intense application of agricultural chemicals such as herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, fertilizers, etc., which can only be rejuvenated efficiently through detailed studies on the phytomicrobiome component, the phytomicrobiome has recently emerged as a primary plant trait that affects crop production. The phytomicrobiome also acts as an essential modifying factor in plant root exudation and vice versa, resulting in better plant health and crop yield both in terms of quantity and quality. Not only supporting better plant growth, phytomicrobiome members are involved in the degradation of toxic materials, alleviating the stress conditions that adversely affect plant development. Thus, the present review compiles the progress in understanding phytomicrobiome relationships and their application in achieving the goal of sustainable agriculture.

There are several reports about the optimization of protease production, but only few have optimized the production of organic solvent tolerant keratinolytic proteases that show remarkable exploitation in the development of the non-polluting processes in biotechnological industries. The present study was carried with aim to optimize the production of a thermostable organic solvent tolerant keratinolytic protease Thermoactinomyces sp. RM4 utilizing chicken feathers. Thermoactinomyces sp. RM4 isolated from the soil sample collected from a rice mill wasteyard site near Kashipur, Uttrakhand was identified on the basis of 16S rDNA analysis. The production of organic solvent tolerant keratinolytic protease enzyme by Thermoactinomyces sp. RM4 was optimized by varying physical culture conditions such as pH (10.0), temperature (60°C), inoculum percentage (2%), feather concentration (2%) and agitation rate (2g) for feather degradation. The result showed that Thermoactinomyces sp. RM4 potentially produces extra-cellular thermostable organic solvent tolerant keratinolytic protease in the culture medium. Further, the feather hydrolysate from keratinase production media showed plant growth promoting activity by producing indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) itself. The present findings suggest that keratinolytic protease from Thermoactinomyces sp. RM4 offers enormous industrial applications due to its organic solvent tolerant property in peptide synthesis, practical role in feather degradation and potential function in plant growth promoting activity, which might be a superior candidate to keep ecosystem healthy and functional.