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SHINKAI 6500 collects sediment samples of the ocean floor in Suruga Bay
Sediment samples collected from a SHINKAI 6500 2,406 m deep dive to the Suruga Bay seafloor yielded Microbulbifer sp. strain A94, a bacterium viable in temperatures as high as 52℃.
Appearance of Thermostable β-Agarase
Genes isolated from strain A94 were used to produce agarase for analysis. Results showed that high levels of activity on agarose degradation remain even after processing for 15 minutes at 60℃, indicating that 55℃ is the optimum response temperature. Attempts to further break down agar resulted in generation of neoagaro-tetrasaccharide at high selectivity that was determined usable for industrial production. A patent application submitted in 2004 was registered in 2009 as Patent No. 4441486.
Nippon Gene, Co. Ltd. proposes commercial production
Requests from several companies that arrived after the patent application was submitted. One of these was from Nippon Gene, Co. Ltd., a representative Japanese research reagent manufacturer, whose flagship products include agar for agarose gel electrophoresis used in genome analysis. The company's proposal was to commercially produce the reagent product related to this agarose gel for electrophoresis.
Search of the agarase-producing bacteria
A thermo-stable agarase producer, Microbulbifer sp. strain A94, isolated from a sediment at a depth of 2,406m in Suruga Bay.
Results showed that high levels of activity on agarose degradation remain even after processing for 15 minutes at 60℃, indicating that 55℃ is the optimum response temperature.
Neoagaro-tetrasaccharide
