Patent ID: 7141402

Claim:
An isolated gene encoding an α-agarase, selected from the group consisting of: (1) a gene encoding a polypeptide containing an amino acid sequence consisting of 749 residues from residue 177 to residue 925 in the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:14; (2) a gene containing a nucleotide sequence consisting of 2247 bases from nucleotide 529 to nucleotide 2775 in the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:12; and (3) a gene that hybridizes to the gene of (2) in a solution containing 6×SSC (1×SSC:0.15M NaCl, 0.015 M sodium citrate, pH 7.0), 0.5% SDS, 5× Denhardt's and 100 mg/ml herring sperm DNA at 65° C.