Fig. 8

TLC analysis of agarose degradation by agarase-fst. The hydrolysis reactions were performed at 45 °C for 48 h in 20 mM Tris/HClbuffer (pH 8) containing 0.2 % (w/v) agarase. Aliquots of the reaction mixture (10 μl) at 6, 12, 24, and 48 h were spotted onto silica gel 60 plates (Merck, Germany) and developed using a solvent system composed of n-butanol, acetic acid and water (2:1:1, v/v/v). The resulting spots were visualized by spraying with 10 % (v/v) H₂SO₄ and heating at 95 °C for 10 min. Neoagarobiose (NA2), neoagarotetraose (NA4) and neoagarohexaose (NA6) were used as standards