The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe CBS 356 exhibits extracellular maltase activity. This activity may be of commercial interest as it exhibited a low pH optimum (3.5) and a high affinity for maltose (Km of 7.0+/-1.8 mM). N-terminal sequencing of the protein indicates that it is the product of the AGL1 gene. Regulation of this gene occurs via a derepression/repression mechanism. In sugar- or nitrogen-limited chemostat cultures, the specific rate of enzyme production (q(p)) was independent of the nature of the carbon source (i.e. glucose or maltose), but synthesis was partially repressed by high sugar concentrations. Furthermore, q(p) increased linearly with specific growth rate (mu) between 0.04 and 0.10 h(-1). The enzyme is easily mass-produced in aerobic glucose-limited fed-batch cultures, in which the specific growth rate is controlled to prevent alcoholic fermentation. In fed-batch cultures in which biomass concentrations of 83 g L(-1) were attained, the enzyme concentration reached 58,000 Units per liter culture supernatant. Extracellular maltase may be used as a dough additive in order to prevent mechanisms such as maltose-induced glucose efflux and maltose-hypersensitivity that occur in maltose-consuming Saccharomyces cerevisiae.