and from marine macro-algae - isolation and characterization of agar-hydrolysing bacteria.

Macro-algae are a good source of agar oligosaccharides, which can be obtained through bacterial enzymatic hydrolysis. The agarase enzyme secreted by the micro-organisms cleaves the cell wall of the algae and releases agar oligosaccharides as degradation products with various applications. Agarolytic bacteria were isolated from the marine algae sp., and sp., and studied for their agar-degrading properties. Among the 70 isolates, 2 isolates (A13 and Sg8) showed agarase activity in assays. The maximum agarolytic index was recorded in the isolate Sg8 (3.75 mm and 4.29 µg ml agarase activity), followed by the isolate A13 (2.53 mm and 2.6 µg ml agarase activity). Optimum agarase production of isolate Sg8 was observed at pH7 and at a temperature of 25 °C in 24-48 h, whereas for isolate A13 the optimum production was at pH7 and at a temperature of 37 °C in 48 h. The identities of the agarolytic isolates (Sg8 and A13) were confirmed based on microscopy, morphological, biochemical and molecular analysis as [National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) GenBank accession number MK121204.1] and [NCBI GenBank accession number MK825484.1], respectively.