Alteromonas sp. GNUM-1 is known to degrade agar, the main cell wall component of red macroalgae, for their growth. A putative agarase gene (agaG1) was identified from the mini-library of GNUM-1, when extracellular agarase activity was detected in a bacterial transformant. The nucleotide sequence revealed that AgaG1 had significant homology to GH16 agarases. agaG1 encodes a primary translation product (34.7 kDa) of 301 amino acids, including a 19-amino-acid signal peptide. For intracellular expression, a gene fragment encoding only the mature form (282 amino acids) was cloned into pGEX-5X-1 in Escherichia coli, where AgaG1 was expressed as a fusion protein with GST attached to its N-terminal (GST-AgaG1). GST-AgaG1 purified on a glutathione sepharose column had an apparent molecular weight of 59 kDa on SDS-PAGE, and this weight matched with the estimated molecular weight (58.7 kDa). The agarase activity of the purified protein was confirmed by the zymogram assay. GST-AgaG1 could hydrolyze the artificial chromogenic substrate, p-nitrophenyl-beta-d-galactopyranoside but not p-nitrophenyl-alpha-d-galactopyranoside. The optimum pH and temperature for GST-AgaG1 activity were identified as 7.0 and 40 A degrees C, respectively. GST-AgaG1 was stable up to 40 A degrees C (100 %), and it retained more than 70 % of its initial activity at 45 A degrees C after heat treatment for 30 min. The K (m) and V (max) for agarose were 3.74 mg/ml and 23.8 U/mg, respectively. GST-AgaG1 did not require metal ions for its activity. Thin layer chromatography analysis, mass spectrometry, and C-13-nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry of the GST-AgaG1 hydrolysis products revealed that GST-AgaG1 is an endo-type beta-agarase that hydrolyzes agarose and neoagarotetraose into neoagarobiose.