Zobellia galactanivorans is a gram-negative marine bacterium isolated from the surface of red algae of the coast of France. Z. galactanivorans forms yellow colonies with a bacillus or morphology. Furthermore, it is mesophilic and can grow degrade carrageenans and agars - both found in the cell wall of red algae. Z. galactanivorans contains the gene porA and porB, each encoding a ò-porphyranase.
porA and porB are catalytic enzymes that hydrolyze the ò-D-galactopyranose (1âÂÂ4) ñ-L-galactopyranose-6-sulfate linkage in porphyran. There is a 35% sequence similarity between ò-Porphyranase-B and ò-Porphyranase-A.
Orthologs between Z. galactanivorans and Bacteroides plebeius-1698, a strain of Bacteroides plebeius, contain a sequence similarity of 48%-69%. Homologous genes between other Bacteroides species only have a 30% sequence similarity. Moreover, porphyranase genes in both Z. galactanivorans and B. plebeius are located in similar orders along their chromosome, or are syntenic.