Part:BBa_K5205007

ureC, urease subunit beta from Sporosarcina pasteurii DSM33

ureC encodes for a urease subunit alpha in S. pasteurii DSM33, which is one of the three essential subunits (gamma, beta, and alpha) that together form the active urease enzyme complex (Moersdorf et al., 1994). UreC is the main subunit that contains the active site and exhibits the highest expression level among the three subunits (You et al., 1995). This enzyme is crucial for catalyzing the hydrolysis of urea into ammonia and carbon dioxide, a key step in the process of microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP).

Figure 1. A. Schematic of urease and microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) in S. pasteurii (Wu et al., 2021); B. UreC in the urease gene cluster of S. pasteurii DSM33 (Pei et al., 2023).

Sequence and Features

Assembly Compatibility:

• 10
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[10]
• 12
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[12]
• 21
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[21]
• 23
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[23]
• 25
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[25]
• 1000
  INCOMPATIBLE WITH RFC[1000]

  Illegal BsaI.rc site found at 1451
  

Usage and Biology

Microbiologically Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP) involves hydrolyzing urea into ammonia and carbonate ions, raising pH to form calcium carbonate precipitates (Sarayu et al., 2014). This process can also precipitate heavy metals like cadmium and remove them from the water (Qasem et al., 2021). By introducing urease genes (ureC) from S. pasteurii into E. coli, E. coli can be engineered to be a heavy metal remover.

Figure 2. SDS-PAGE of total protein of engineered E. coli BL21 expressing ureC.

References

Moersdorf, G., Weinmann, P., & Kaltwasser, H. (1994). Nucleotide sequence of three genes on a urease encoding DNA-fragment from Bacillus pasteurii.

Pei, D., Liu, Z., & Hu, B. (2023). A novel urease gene structure of Sporosarcina pasteurii with double operons.

Qasem, N. A. A., Mohammed, R. H., & Lawal, D. U. (2021). Removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater: a comprehensive and critical review. npj Clean Water, 4(1), 36. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-021-00127-0

Sarayu, K., Iyer, N. R., & Murthy, A. R. (2014). Exploration on the biotechnological aspect of the ureolytic bacteria for the production of the cementitious materials--a review. Appl Biochem Biotechnol, 172(5), 2308-2323. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-013-0686-0

Wu, Y., Li, H., & Li, Y. (2021). Biomineralization Induced by Cells of Sporosarcina pasteurii: Mechanisms, Applications and Challenges. Microorganisms, 9(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9112396

You, J.-H., Song, B.-H., Kim, J.-G., Lee, M.-H., & Kim, S.-D. (1995). Genetic Organization and Nucleotide Sequencing of the ure Gene Cluster in Bacillus pasteurii. Molecules and Cells, 5(4), 359-369. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/S1016-8478(23)17336-5