Abstract: Agar, which can be degraded by agarase, is composed of agarose and agaropectin.
Agarases producing microorganisms have been isolated from many sources, including seawater,
marine sediments, marine algae, marine mollusks, fresh water, and soil. The present study was
firstly planned to investigate the effect of medium composition and culture conditions on agarase
production by Bacillus sp. R2 in shake flasks (submerged fermentation), using one factor at time
technique (OFAT). The highest agarase activity was obtained in 0.2% agar as essential carbon
source, 0.2% lactose as secondary carbon source, 0.5% NH4Cl as nitrogen source, 5% NaCl and 5%
culture seed as best inoculum size. The production also was optimum at initial pH: 7, temperature
30 °C, and 24 h incubation period at 150 rpm shaking. The agarase hyperactivity in this
cost-effective economic medium composition and culture condition enlighten the potential
application of Bacillus sp. R2 as promising new source for agarase production.
Keywords: Bacillus sp. R2; agarase; submerged fermentation; production; optimization
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