Urease from Vigna umbellata seeds: isolation, partial purification, characterization and antifungal activity

Abstract

Urease (EC 3.5.1.5) hydrolyzes urea to produce ammonia and carbamate. Urease can be synthesized by plants, fungi and bacteria. In agriculture, urease is needed efficiently to play a major role in the urea cycle as source of plant nitrogen in the soil. Rice beans (Vigna umbellata) are leguminous plants from the Fabaceae family that contain high urease activity. This study isolated urease from the seed coat and without the seed coat of rice beans. The urease activity in rice beans without seed coat was higher than that of the activity with seed coat. The amount of ammonia produced with the addition of 1 µL of urease enzyme of rice beans without seed coat was 13 µg which was higher than the amino produced from the seed coat sample (8.8 µg). The concentration of urease enzyme from rice beans was obtained at 7.238 mg/mL. Analyses of gel electrophoresis indicated that urease from rice beans are composed of four polypeptide chains with molecular weights of about 52, 33, 22 and 10 kDa. Then rice beans urease exhibited no antifungal activity against Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Microsporum canis, Fusarium oxysporum subsp. lini, Trichophyton rubrum, Candida glabrata and Candida albicans.