Agarase enzyme system from alteromonas strain 2-40

An isolated and purified agarase enzyme system which can digest agarose into its component monosaccharides isolated from bacterial strain 2-40 by a method comprising;

• a) amplifying the cells of strain 2-40 on minimal media supplemented with an agar or agarase carbon source;
• b) harvesting the cell supernatant;
• c) selecting the cell supernatant for molecular weight fragments greater than 30,000;
• d) electrophoretically size fractionating the selected portion of the cell supernatant on a separation polyacrylamide gel;
• e) blotting the gel containing the size fractionated supernatant of step (d) in direct contact with an overlay second polyacrylamide gel;
• f) visualizing the agarase activity on the overlay gel by means of an iodine staining assay;
• g) excising the agarase active regions from a third polyacrylamide gel used to electrophoretically fractionate the 2-40 cell supernatant by the manner of steps (b) through (d);
• and
• h) electroeluting agarase of high specific activity from the excised agarase active regions of step (g).