A polysaccharide-degrading marine bacterium Flammeovirga sp MY04 and its extracellular agarase system

Bacteria of the genus Flammeovirga can digest complex polysaccharides (CPs), but no details have been reported regarding the CP depolymerases of these bacteria. MY04, an agarolytic marine bacterium isolated from coastal sediments, has been identified as a new member of the genus Flammeovirga. The MY04 strain is able to utilize multiple CPs as a sole carbon source and grows well on agarose, mannan, or xylan. This strain produces high concentrations of extracellular proteins (490 mg L-1 +/- 18.2 mg L-1 liquid culture) that exhibit efficient and extensive degradation activities on various polysaccharides, especially agarose. These proteins have an activity of 310 U mg(-1) +/- 9.6 U mg(-1) proteins. The extracellular agarase system (EAS) in the crude extracellular enzymes contains at least four agarose depolymerases, which are with molecular masses of approximately 30-70 kDa. The EAS is stable at a wide range of pH values (6.0-11.0), temperatures (0-50A degrees C), and sodium chloride (NaCl) concentrations (0-0.9 mol L-1). Two major degradation products generated from agarose by the EAS are identified to be neoagarotetraose and neoagarohexaose, suggesting that beta-agarases are the major constituents of the MY04 EAS. These results suggest that the Flammeovirga strain MY04 and its polysaccharide-degradation system hold great promise in industrial applications.