A new high polygalacturonase (PG)-producing Kluyveromyces marxianus strain was isolated from coffee wet-processing wastewater. PG production in this strain is not repressed in the presence of 100 g/L of glucose and, being growth-associated, reached its maximum accumulation in the culture medium at the beginning of the stationary phase. Oxygen and galacturonic acid negatively regulated enzyme synthesis, and glucose as the carbon source afforded better enzyme yields than lactose. The data reported here show that this strain exhibits the highest index of PG production among the wild-type strains reported so far (18.8 U/mL). PG was readily purified by ion-exchange chromatography on SP-Sepharose FF. The activity corresponded to a single protein with an M,of 41.7 kDa according to sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The enzyme was stable in the pH range of 3.0-5.0 and displayed an optimal temperature of 55degreesC; it showed a typical endosplitting way of substrate hydrolysis and exhibited a fair degree of activity on pectin with a high degree of esterification.