Nickel (Ni) is one of the essential micronutrients for higher plants and its known function is being the metal component of urease. The effects of various Ni levels on urease activity in maize (Zea maize L.) plants grown in two nutrient media containing urea or ammonium nitrate as two separate nitrogen sources were investigated. The experiments were performed as completely randomized blocks wit...

Urea, a non-protein nitrogen for dairy cows, is rapidly hydrolyzed to ammonia by urease produced by ureolytic bacteria in the rumen, and the ammonia is used as nitrogen for rumen bacterial growth. However, there is limited knowledge with regard to the ureolytic bacteria community in the rumen. To explore the ruminal ureolytic bacterial community, urea, or acetohydroxamic acid (AHA, an inhibitor...

Ammonia production from urea by ureolytic oral bacteria is believed to have a significant impact on oral health and the ecological balance of oral microbial populations. In this study we cloned and characterized the urease gene cluster of Actinomyces naeslundii, which is one of the pioneer organisms in the oral cavity and a significant constituent of supragingival and subgingival dental plaque ...

The application of urea fertilizer has always been associated with heavy N losses therefore, improving its efficiency is critical to minimize economic and environmental losses associated with its application. One possible approach to improve the nitrogen losses from the surface applied urea is to coat it with sulfur, urease inhibitor (agrotain) and other biodegradable materials. A pot experimen...

All methods for the determination of urea in urine dependent on purely chemical processes for the hydrolysis of the urea are apparently destined to become antiquated, if not forgotten, because of the abundant supply of urease now available for such hydrolysis. It would be easy to devise an excellent direct Nesslerization method for the determination of urea in urine on the basis of the Folin-Pe...

The urease from the picoplanktonic oceanic Prochlorococcus marinus sp. strain PCC 9511 was purified 900-fold to a specific activity of 94.6 micromol urea min(-1) (mg protein)(-1) by heat treatment and liquid chromatography methods. The enzyme, with a molecular mass of 168 kDa as determined by gel filtration, is the smallest urease known to date. Three different subunits with apparent molecular ...

The nickel-containing enzyme urease is an essential colonization factor of the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori, as it allows the bacterium to survive the acidic conditions in the gastric mucosa. Although urease can represents up to 10% of the total protein content of H. pylori, expression of urease genes is thought to be constitutive. Here it is demonstrated that H. pylori regulates the ex...

Urease (urea amidohydrolase; EC 3.5.1.5) catalyzes the hydrolysis of urea to yield ammonia and carbamate. The latter compound spontaneously decomposes to yield another molecule of ammonia and carbonic acid. The urease phenotype is widely distributed across the bacterial kingdom, and the gene clusters encoding this enzyme have been cloned from numerous bacterial species. The complete nucleotide ...

The propert ies of rumen urease were studied. In the absence of high concentrations of dithiothreitol enzyme activity was rapidly lost; in its presence, the enzyme could be solubilized and purified in high yield. Maximum activity was observed between pH 7 and 8.5. The Km for urea with partially purified enzyme was .004 M with Vmax of 300 to 400 #moles/mg/hr. No divalent metal ion requirement or...

Ubiquitous soybean urease, as opposed to the seed-specific urease, designates the seemingly identical ureolytic activities of suspension cultures and leaves. It also appears to be the basal urease in developing seeds of a variety, Itachi, which lacks the seed-specific urease (Polacco, Winkler 1984 Plant Physiol 74: 800-804). On native polyacrylamide gels the ureolytic activities in crude extrac...