Isolation and Characterization of a Novel Agar Degrading Bacterium, Alteromonas macleodii subsp. GNUM08120, from Red Macroalgae

An agar-hydrolyzing marine bacterium, strain GNUM08120, was isolated from Sargassum fulvellum collected from Yeongil bay of East Sea of Korea. The isolate was Gram-negative, aerobic, motile with single polar flagellum, and grew at 1-10% NaCl, pH 5.0-8.0, and . G+C content and the predominant respiratory quinone were 46.13 mol% and Q-8, respectively. The major cellular fatty acids were Summed feature 3 (24.5%), (21.7%), and (12.5%). Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity and DNA-DNA hybridization analyses, strain GNUM08120 was identified as a novel subspecies of Alteromonas macleodii, designated Alteromonas macleodii subsp. GNUM08120. Production of agarase by strain GNUM08120 was likely repressed by the effect of carbon catabolite repression caused by glucose. The crude agarase prepared from 12-h culture broth of strain GNUM08120 exhibited an optimum pH and temperature for agarase activity at 7.0 and , respectively. The crude enzyme produced (neo)agarobiose, (neo)agarotetraose, and (neo)agarohexaose as the hydrolyzed product of agarose.