Agarivorans albus MKT 106 Genome Sequencing. Agarivorans albus MKT 106

Members of the genus Agarivorans are Gram-negative, strictly aerobic and agar-hydrolyzing bacteria. A. albus, the type species of the genus Agarivorans, was isolated by Kurahashi and Yokoyama (2004) from the intestines of healthy marine creatures that were collected from the coast of the Kanto area in Japan. One of the particular phenotypic features of the genus Agarivorans is their ability to degrade agar. This agar-degrading attribute likely plays a role in algae-feeding marine creatures and within the carbon cycle of the marine ecosystem. Although several β-agarase genes which catalyze the hydrolysis of agar have been identified in A. albus and Agarivorans sp., there is no whole genome sequence information available for the genus Agarivorans. We therefore undertook to characterize the genomic features of the genus Agarivorans, and now present the draft genome sequence of A. albus type strain MKT 106