?
Urease beta-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, archaea, 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 three subunits, alpha, beta and gamma, which can exist as separate proteins or can be fused on a single protein chain. The alpha-beta-gamma heterotrimer 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.