Isolation of a Urea Degrading Bacteria :: Biology

Isolation of a Urea Degrading BacteriaIntroductionUrea was the first perfect chemical to be synthetically produced1,previously it was thought that only bread and butter creatures could produceorganic compounds Urea is naturally produced by the kidneys as snitchfrom the degradation of amino acids. It is because of this that carbamideis usually found in soils and is a useful nutrient source for bacterium that are able to put on it, such as, Helicobacter pylori,Klebsiella pneumonia, all species of Proteus and Micrococcus luteus.These bacteria degrade carbamide in a reaction catalysed by the ureaseenzyme, CO(NH2)2 + H2O CO2 + 2NH3. this member benefits the bacteriain several ways. The bacteria use the ammonia that is produced forrespiration, the products as well as raise the pH of the environment. Thispromotes the growth of m any urea degrading bacteria and inhibitscompetition from many other bacterial species.M. luteus is commonly found on mammalian skin and it is unusual for ame mber of the natural gentleman flora to degrade urea. It is believed thatM. luteus has this ability as an evolutionary hangover from its vivificationin its ancestral soil habitat. In this environment urea is right awayavailable and the ability to degrade it is a distinct advantage. Asthe species evolved to tarry on skin the trait remained, as it had nonegative publication on survivability.Micrococcus is a genus within the Micrococcaceae family. With the useof 16s ribonucleic acid in bacterial taxonomy the genus has recently been revised2.The genus now includes three species, M. luteus, M. lylae and M.antarcticus3. M. luteus is a common yellow gram-positive coccus androughly 0.5-2.0mm in diameter. Cells appear in pairs, tetrads andirregular clusters but never in chains.4Method of Isolation* confiscate a variety of organisms from soil and skin.By taking samples from four unalike sources (three skin and onesoil) the chance of urea degrading bacteria creation present wasincreased .* Culture in nutrient broth.This allowed all isolated microbes to grow.* base sample onto urea plates.On these plates urea was the only nutrient available, this meant thatany bacteria that grew could degrade urea.* Perform urease test.Isolated bacteria are giving in a broth containing phosphate buffer,yeast extract, 2% urea and phenol red. An agar slope of the medium isheavily inoculated and incubated at 370c for at least four hours. Ifthe organism only has low urease activity the phosphate buffer willneutralise the NH3 produced. A red colour indicates that NH3 has beenproduced and the reply is positive5.* Perform Gram stain.This is the most important stain in bacteriology and differentiates among gram positive and gram-negative cell walls, which indicates