Nature 193, 1106 - 1107 (17 March 1962); doi:10.1038/1931106b0

Microbial Urease

H. SENECA, P. PEER & R. NALLY

College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University and the Presbyterian Hospital, New York, New York.

THE enzyme urease occurs in a wide variety of tissues in man, namely the gastric mucosa, liver, kidney, erythrocytes, etc., as well as in bacteria, yeasts, moulds, plants and molluscs. Sumner was the first chemist to obtain urease in crystalline form and showed that it was a protein of the globulin type with an isoelectric point of five^1,2. All species of the genus Proteus and many other genera of bacteria contain urease. The urease content of P. vulgaris is very high, and the rate of ammonia production of these organisms during growth has been used as a method of differentiating Proteus from other bacterial genera^3–6.

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