Isolation of a Urea Degrading Bacteria
Introduction
Urea was the first organic chemical to be synthetically produced1, previously it was thought that only living creatures could produce organic compounds Urea is naturally produced by the kidneys as waste from the degradation of amino acids. It is because of this that urea is commonly found in soils and is a useful nutrient source for bacteria that are able to utilise it, such as, Helicobacter pylori,
Klebsiella pneumonia, all species of Proteus and Micrococcus luteus.
These bacteria degrade urea in a reaction catalysed by the urease enzyme, CO(NH2)2 + H2O àCO2 + 2NH3. this process benefits the bacteria in several ways. The bacteria use the ammonia that is produced for respiration, the products also raise the pH of the environment. This promotes the growth of many urea degrading bacteria and inhibits competition from many other bacterial species.
M. luteus is commonly found on mammalian skin and it is unusual for a member of the natural human flora to degrade urea. It is believed that
M. luteus has this ability as an evolutionary hangover from its life in its ancestral soil habitat. In this environment urea is readily available and the ability to degrade it is a distinct advantage. As the species evolved to live on skin the trait remained, as it had no negative effect on survivability.
Micrococcus is a genus within the Micrococcaceae family. With the use of 16s RNA 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 and roughly 0.5-2.0mm in diameter. Cells appear in pairs, tetrads and irregular clusters but never in chains.4
Method of Isolation
* Isolate a variety of organisms from soil and skin.
By taking samples from four different sources (three skin and one soil) the chance of urea degrading bacteria being present was increased. * Culture in nutrient broth.
This allowed all isolated microbes to grow.
* Plate sample onto urea plates.
On these plates urea was the only nutrient available, this meant that any bacteria that grew could degrade urea.
* Perform urease test.
Isolated bacteria are grown in a broth containing phosphate buffer, yeast extract, 2% urea and phenol red. An agar slope of the medium is heavily inoculated and incubated at 370c for at least four hours. If the organism only has low urease activity the phosphate buffer will neutralise the NH3 produced. A red colour indicates that NH3 has been produced and the result is positive5.
* Perform Gram stain.
This is the most important stain in bacteriology and differentiates between gram positive and gram-negative cell walls, which indicates
Carl Woese’s (1990) groundbreaking paper categorised the Tree of Life into three domains for the first time– Archaea, Eubacteria and Eukarya. Before this, Archaea were known as Archaebacteria due to their prokaryotic, single-celled appearance similar to bacteria. However, Woese analysed 16S ribosomal RNA from all three groups and discovered there were differences of such significance in the sequences, for example between positions 180 and 197, that Archaea should be classified as their own domain. The three domains are believed to have separated from one common ancestor, with Eubacteria and Archaea diverging 3.8 billion years ago and Archaea separating from Eukarya 2.8 billion years ago. This means that, despite their appearance, Archaea share more similarities with eukaryotes, such as 33 identical ribosomal proteins, than with bacteria.
...m them (2). These doctors maintain business because the addicts keep coming back (2). In fact, some doctors, such as, dentists and family doctors, over-prescribe and do not take any responsibility for a patient becoming addicted to a drug (2). As a result, stricter laws
The war on drugs has brought up many questions. Some may argue that all drugs should be legalized. Legalizing drugs in the U.S. could possibly reduce the amount of addicts. Research suggests that, “But 400,000 policemen would be freed to pursue criminals engaged in activity other than the sale and distribution of drugs if such sale and distribution, at a price at which there was no profit, were to be done by, say, a federal drugstore”. This would ease a lot of tension off police officers around the country. However, because drugs are not legal, society has to rely on their local police departments to keep them safe from addicts (Wm. F. Buckley Jr.,
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There are many contributing factors and political issues that address substance abuse. Throughout the years, many researchers have designed many interventions and social policies designed to treat people who have used, abused, and became addicted to substances. Today, there are many new studies that address substance abuse at the individual, group, family, and community or policy levels. Today, there are many services that are effective for decreasing recidivism in youth who have completed a substance abuse program. A substance abuse treatment program or center is the best way to treat individuals who have abused substances.
When we view substance use disorders, alcohol is the most widely used drug within the United States and 11 percent of workers have drinking problems (Frone, 2006). Over 20 million people used illegal substances in 2006 and 7 million people abused prescribed medications. Of the 18 million drug abusers, 18 years or older in 2006, 13.4 million (74.9 %) were employed full or part time (SAMHSA, OSA). These addiction problems have an expenditure of $276 billion dollars per year with most of this cost from loss of productivity and health care (H. Harwood, D. Fountain, and G. Livermore, 1992).
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