• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.317-325
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• 2001

For heuristic purposes, the relative ratio of urease contents inside and outside cells was surveyed using nine ureB+ strains of Helicobacter pylori. the ratio of the enzyme specific activity appeared to vary greatly between the various H. pylori strains, ranging from 0.5 to 2.5. Besides the above compartment, urease was also richly found in the membrane fraction, especially in either peripheral or integral form. The urease distribution across the H. pylori membrane was significantly influenced by the ambient pH; the specific activity of external urease was highest at pH 5.5 with a narrow plateau, whereas the internal specific activity was highest within a pH range of 4.5 to 6.5 with a broad plateau. These finding strongly suggest that H. pylori urease is secretory and responded to the external pH. However, at pH 4.0 or below, no urease activity was detected in either the internal or external compartment, although an increase in the color development with 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonate (TNBS) was observed. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) demonstrated that these phenomena may be related to a specific proteolysis in certain proteins, including urease or ${\gamma}$-glutamyl transpeptidase. Interestingly, the effect of ammonium ions n alleviating the enzyme inactivation inside the H. pylori cells was remarkably similar to that of D-glucose. In addition, it would appear that the cation acted as a surrogate of not only $Na^+$ but also $K^+$ thereby increasing the H. pylori P-type ATPase activity. This is of great interest, as it implies that the urease action in H. pylori is indispensible at any locus.

• BMB Reports
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.240-244
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• 1998

Helicobacter pylori is the etiologic agent of human gastritis and peptic ulceration and produces urease as the major protein component on its surface. H. pylori urease is known to serve as a major virulence factor and in a potent immunogen. In order to express the recombinant urease at a higher level, a DNA fragment containing the minimal H. pylori urease gene cluster was subcloned into a high copy-number vector. The recombinant H. pylori urease expressed in an E. coli strain that was grown in a rich medium supplemented with added nickel was purified to near homogeneity by using DEAE-Sepharose, Superdex HR200, and Mono-Q (FPLC) columns and the purified enzyme possessed the specific activity of 1255 U/mg. Polyclonal antibodies raised against the purified recombinant H. pylori urease were shown to be very specific when subjected to Western blot analysis, in which crude extracts from the H. pylori ATCC strain and the recombinant E. coli strains expressing various bacterial ureases were exnmined for cross-reactivity.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.700-704
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• 1998

Each of the recombinant structural genes of Helicobacter pylori urease, ureA and ureB, was cloned and overexpressed as inclusion bodies. Solubilization and renaturation of the inclusion bodies were carried out, to accelerate the pairing of sulfhydryl groups and the incorporation of nickel ions, which would lead to the native structure with high enzyme activity. Rates of urea hydrolysis were monitored as an indication of in vitro activation of renatured ureases. The activation of the apoprotein using 1 mM nickel ion, 100 mM sodium bicarbonate and a 10:1 ratio of reducing power resulted in a weak urease activity (about 11% of the native urease activity encoded by pTZ 19R/ure-l). When a sparse matrix screen method originally discovered for the crystallization of proteins was used, the activity increased higher than that obtained using glutathione. The effect of polyethylene glycol (PEG) on the activity was noticeable, giving two-fold increase in the specific activity (about 11 U/mg of protein corresponding to 22% of the native urease activity encoded by pTZ19R/ure-1).

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1992-1998
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• 2018

In 2015, Bacillus paralicheniformis was separated from B. licheniformis on the basis of phylogenomic and phylogenetic studies, and urease activity was reported as a phenotypic property that differentiates between the two species. Subsequently, we have found that the urease activity of B. paralicheniformis is strain-specific, and does not reliably discriminate between species, as strains having the same urease gene cluster were identified in B. licheniformis and B. sonorensis, the closest relatives of B. paralicheniformis. We developed a multilocus sequence typing scheme using eight housekeeping genes, adk, ccpA, glpF, gmk, ilvD, pur, spo0A, and tpi to clearly identify B. paralicheniformis from closely related Bacillus species and to find a molecular marker for the rapid identification of B. paralicheniformis. The scheme differentiated 33 B. paralicheniformis strains from 90 strains formerly identified as B. licheniformis. Among the eight housekeeping genes, spo0A possesses appropriate polymorphic sites for the design of a B. paralichenofomis-specific PCR primer set. The primer set designed in this study perfectly separated B. paralicheniformis from B. licheniformis and B. sonorensis.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 1981

Changes of urease activity in plant leaves following foliar application of urea were investigated with soybean, rye, tomato, radish and cabbage which were actively growing in a field. In this experiment, the procedure of the enzyme assay included incubation of the reaction mixture at $60^{\circ}C$ for 3 hr in order to inactivate heat unstable enzmes which may utilize ammonia produced by urease. The leaves with urea application showed somewhat higher urease specific activities for 2-4 days immediately after the foliar spray as compared with controls. The most difference of the specific activies between urea treatment and control was usually observed 2 days after urea application regardless of the plants. The difference of the specific activities disappeared completely 4 or 5 days following urea treatment. Protein contents in the leaves of soybean and tomato were increased for about 5 days after urea treatment, while no significant difference was found with rye, radish and cabbage. Urea application showed slightly lower ammonia concentration in the leaves which had higher urease activities. These results suggest that foliar spray of urea is very effective when nitrogen supply is required for rapid growth.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.286-290
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• 2006

A genomic library of Streptococcus vestibularis ATCC49124 was constructed in an E. coli plasmid vector, and the urease-positive transformants harboring the urease gene cluster were isolated on Christensen-urea agar plates. The minimal DNA region required for urease activity was located in a 5.6 kb DNA fragment, and a DNA sequence analysis revealed the presence of a partial ureI gene and seven complete open reading frames, corresponding to ureA, B, C, E, F, G, and D, respectively. The nucleotide sequence over the entire ure gene cluster and 3'-end flanking region of S. vestibularis was up to 95% identical to that of S. salivarius, another closely related oral bacterium, and S. thermophilus, isolated from dairy products. The predicted amino acid sequences for the structural peptides were 98-100% identical to the corresponding peptides in S. salivarius and S. thermophilus, respectively, whereas those for the accessory proteins were 96-100% identical. The recombinant E. coli strain containing the S. vestibularis ure gene cluster expressed a high level of the functional urease holoenzyme when grown in a medium supplemented with 1 mM nickel chloride. The enzyme was purified over 49-fold by using DEAE-Sepharose FF, Superdex HR 200, and Mono-Q HR 5/5 column chromatography. The specific activity of the purified enzyme was 2,019 U/mg, and the Michaelis constant ($K_{m}$) of the enzyme was estimated to be 1.4 mM urea. A Superose 6HR gel filtration chromatography study demonstrated that the native molecular weight was about 196 kDa.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.281-288
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• 1999

Helicobacter species have been identified in or isolated from domestic carnivores, but their prevalence in different population of animals and their clinical significance are still unknown. This study was peformed to evaluate the prevalence of Helicobacter in clinically healthy dogs by urease test, culture, morphological examination and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. Tissue samples from 70 dogs in Kangwon and Kyunggi areas from August 1998 to April, 1999, were examined. The detection rates of Helicobacter by urease activity of tissue-samples were 84.6%, 61.3% and 4.8 % in the fundus, the antrum and the duodenum, respectively. One strain of Helicobacter was isolated from the duodenum. It was identified as H canis by biochemical and morphorogical examination. The detection rates of Helicobacter by histological examination were 92.3%, 79.0% and 4.8% in the fundus, antrum and the duodenum, respectively. Helicobacter organisms were colonized more in the gastric pits than in the surface of epithelium, the gastric gland or the parietal cell. Although most of dogs were colonized with Helicobacter in tissue, gross lesions and specific histopathological lesions caused by Helicobacter in these tissues were not observed. The detection rate of Helicobacter by PCR was 78.6%. The histological examination was more sensitive than urease test, culture or PCR technique for the detection of Helicobacter.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.4 s.84
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• pp.581-586
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• 2007

Staphylococcus epidermidis is a coagulase-negative, gram-positive bacterium that normally inhabits the human skin. S. epidermidis is also known to be an opportunistic pathogen in infections of various indwelling medical devices. This report describes purification and characterization of the urease of S. epidermidis urease, which may act as a virulence factor. The urease from S. epidermidis was purified 1,127 fold by using DEAE-Sepharose, Phenyl-Sepharose, Mono-Q and Superdex HR200 column chromatography. The specific activity of the purified enzyme was 993.8 U/mg. Michaelis constant($K_m$) of the enzyme was estimated to be 8.5 mM urea by using Lineweaver-Burke double reciprocal plot. The native molecular weight of the urease was shown to be 255 kD by using Superose 6HR gel filtration chromatography and the purified enzyme contained 2.2 nickel ions per catalytic unit. The overall stoichiometry of the enzyme subunits appears to be $(\alpha\beta\gamma)_3$, which is consistent with the enzymes from other bacteria sources.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.268-272
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• 2012

Microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) has been explored for protection and consolidation of construction materials such as concrete. In this study, we isolated 54 calcite forming bacteria from concrete pavement and selected 5 isolates which showed high specific urease activity. Also response of the 5 strains against various environmental stresses was examined. BC 4 and BC 5 showed 35% and 26% viability at heat stress ($50^{\circ}C$), respectively. BC 1 and BC 4 maintained 60.4% and 70.4% viability upon osmotic stress (1 M NaCl), respectively. Among the 5 isolates BC 4 had the highest viability upon alkaline stress (pH 10).

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
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• 1994.11a
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• pp.69-80
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• 1994

Although ureases play important roles in microbial nitrogen metabolism and in the pathogenesis of several human diseases, little is known of the mechanism of metallocenter biosynthesis in this Ni-Containing enzyme. Klebsiella aerogenes urease apo-protein was purified from cells grown in the absence of Ni. The purified apo-enzyme showed the same native molecular weight, charge, and subunit stoichiometry as the holo-enzyme. Chemical modification studies were consistent with histidinyl ligation of Ni. Apo-enzyme could not be activated by simple addition of Ni ions suggesting a requirement for a cellular factor. Deletion analysis showed that four accessory genes (ureD, ureE, ureF, and ureG) are necessary for the functional incorporation of the urease metallocenter. Whereas the $\Delta$ureD, $\Delta$ureF, and $\Delta$ureG mutants are inactive and their ureases lack Ni, the $\Delta$ureE mutants retain partial activity and their ureases possess corresponding lower levels of Ni. UreE and UreG peptides were identified by SDS-polyacrylamide gel comparisons of mutant and wild type cells and by N-terminal sequencing. UreD and UreF peptides, which are synthesized at ve교 low levels, were identified by using in vitro transcription/translation methods. Cotransformation of E. coli cells with the complementing plasmids confirmed that ureD and ureF gene products act in trans. UreE was purified and characterized. immunogold electron microscopic studies were used to localize UreE to the cytoplasm. Equilibrium dialysis studies of purified UreE with $^{63}$ NiC1$_2$ showed that it binds ～6 Ni in a specific manner with a $K_{d}$ of 9.6 $\pm$1.3 $\mu$M. Results from spectroscopic studies demonstrated that Ni ions are ligated by 5 histidinyl residues and a sixth N or O atom, consistent with participation of the polyhistidine tail at the carboxyl termini of the dimeric UreE in Ni binding. With these results and other known features of the urease-related gene products, a model for urease metallocenter biosynthesis is proposed in which UreE binds Ni and acts as a Ni donor to the urease apo-protein while UreG binds ATP and couples its Hydrolysis to the Ni incorporation process.ouples its Hydrolysis to the Ni incorporation process.s.