Two different agarase genes (pSW1, pSW3) were cloned from a marine bacterium Pseudomonas sp. W7 into E. coli JM83 using the multicopy plasmid vector pUC19. Two cloned strains of recombinant E. coli which showed the agarase activity were obtained and were named E. coli JM83/pSW1 and E. coli JM83/pSW3. These strains had the insert fragment of 3.7kb and 3.0kb, respectively. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of the agarase containing the recombinant plasmid pSW3 was determined and the sequence did not show homology to any other known agarases. The optimum pH and temperature of the agarases from the cloned strains, E. coli JM83/pSW1 and pSW3, were 6.0, 7.0 and 30 degrees C, 40 degrees C, respectively.