Computational Sequence Analysis and Structure Prediction of Jack Bean Urease

Ureases are ubiquitous in nature having similar catalytic function yet sometimes different protein structures. Catalytic hydrolysis of urea results in the production of ammonia causing abrupt pH increase of the surrounding medium. This increase in pH has has been shown to have adverse effects on human health and agriculture. The efficiency of soil nitrogen fertilization with urea gets decreased due to activity of soil ureases. Large amount of urease present in ureolytic bacteria has been also shown as a major cause of human diseases. Both bacterial and plant ureases have been shown to posses high sequence similarity, suggesting that they may have similar three-dimensional structures and a conserved catalytic mechanism. In the present work, homology modelling was performed to construct 3D structural model of jack bean urease. Homology modelling of jack bean urease can be used to study the mechanism of substrate/inhibitor binding with its active site. Computational studies based on these homology models, may provide informations for structure based drug designing against bacterial ureases.