Agarase is a promising biocatalyst for several industrial
applications. Agarase production was evaluated by
the marine fungus Dendryphiella arenaria utilizing Palisada
perforata as a basal substrate in semi-solid state fermentation.
Seaweed biomass, glucose, and sucrose were the most significant
parameters affecting agarase production, and their levels
were further optimized using Box-Behnken design. The maximum
agarase activity was 7.69 U/mL. Agarase showed a
degree of thermostability with half-life of 99 min at 40 °C,
and declining to 44.72 min at 80 °C. Thermodynamics suggested
an important process of protein aggregation during
thermal inactivation. Additionally, the enzymatic saccharification
of the seaweed biomass using crude agarase was optimized
with respect to biomass particle size, solid/liquid ratio,
and enzyme loadings. The amount of biosugars obtained after
optimization was 26.15 ± 1.43 mg/g. To the best of our knowledge,
this is the first report on optimization of agarase in
D. arenaria.