cd00375

Urease alpha-subunit; Urease is a nickel-dependent metalloenzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of urea to form ammonia and carbon dioxide. Nickel-dependent ureases are found in bacteria, fungi and plants. Their primary role is to allow the use of external and internally generated urea as a nitrogen source. The enzyme consists of 3 subunits, alpha, beta and gamma, which can be fused and present on a single protein chain and which in turn forms multimers, mainly trimers. The large alpha subunit is the catalytic domain containing an active site with a bi-nickel center complexed by a carbamylated lysine. The beta and gamma subunits play a role in subunit association to form the higher order trimers.