Gayadomonas joobiniege G7 is an agar-degrading marine bacterium belonging to a novel genus. Genomic sequencing of G. joobiniege revealed that AgaJ9 (formerly YjdB) belonging to the glycoside hydrolase (GH) 39 family. It showed the highest similarity (47% identity) to a putative β-agarase from Catenovulum agarivorans DS-2, an agar-degrading marine bacterium sharing the highest similarity in the nucleotide sequence of 16s rRNA gene with G. joobiniege G7. The agaJ9 gene encodes a protein (134 kDa) of 1205 amino acids, including a 23-amino acid signal peptide. The agarase activity of purified AgaJ9 was confirmed by zymogram analysis. The optimum pH and temperature for AgaJ9 activity were determined as 5 and 25 °C, respectively. Notably, AgaJ9 is a cold-adapted β-agarase retaining more than 80% of its activity even at a temperature of 5 °C. In addition, gel filtration chromatography revealed that AgaJ9 exists as two forms, dimer and monomer. Although the two forms had similar enzymatic properties, their kinetic parameters were different. The K m and V max of dimeric AgaJ9 for agarose was 0.68 mg/ml (5.7 × 10-6 M) and 17.2 U/mg, respectively, whereas the monomeric form had a K m of 1.43 mg/ml (1.2 × 10-5 M) and V max of 10.7 U/mg. Thin-layer chromatography and agarose-liquefying analyses revealed that AgaJ9 is an endo-type β-agarase that hydrolyzes agarose into neoagarotetraose and neoagarobiose. This study is the first report of a GH39 β-agarase with a cold-adapted enzymatic feature, a unique attribute, which may be useful for industrial applications.
Keywords: Agar; Cold-adapted enzyme; GH39; Gayadomonas joobiniege; β-Agarase.