A special eosinophilic agarase exo-type β-agarase gene, AgaDL6, was cloned from a marine agar-degrading bacterium, Flammeovirga sp. HQM9. The gene comprised 1,383-bp nucleotides encoding a putative agarase AgaDL6 of 461 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 52.8 kDa. Sequence analysis revealed a β-agarase domain that belongs to the glycoside hydrolase family (GH) 16 and a carbohydrate-binding module (CBM_4_9) unique to agarases. AgaDL6 was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). Enzyme activity analysis of the purified protein showed that the optimal temperature and pH of AgaDL6 were 50°C and 3.0, respectively. AgaDL6 showed thermal stability by retaining more than 98% of activity after incubation for 2 h at 50°C, a feature quite different from other agarases. AgaDL6 also exhibited outstanding acid stability, retaining 100% of activity after incubation for 24 h at pH 2.0 to 5.0, a property distinct from other agarases. This is the first agarase characterized to have such high acid stability. In addition, we observed no obvious stimulation or inhibition of AgaDL6 in the presence of various metal ions and denaturants. AgaDL6 is an exo-type β-1,4 agarase that cleaved agarose into neoagarotetraose and neoagarohexaose as the final products. These characteristics make AgaDL6 a potentially valuable enzyme in the cosmetic, food, and pharmaceutical industries.
Keywords: Agarase; CBM_4_9; GH16; eosinophilic; thermostable enzyme.