Isolation of Novel Alcaligenes faecalis for Production of Medically Useful Enzyme Uricase

Abstract

Uricase (EC 1.7.3.4) enzyme is widely used for uric acid detection in clinical analysis and there are many reports on uricase enzymes for efficient treatment of gout and hyperuricemia. This study was conducted in order to investigate new sources of uricase hyper producer. Uricase producing bacteria were successfully isolated from poultry farm soil samples on the basis of their uricolytic activity on uric acid containing agar medium. The isolated bacterium was identified as Alcaligenes faecalis on the basis of 16S rRNA sequence and phylogenetic tree analysis. This is the first report of production of clinically important enzyme uricase from isolated Alcaligenes faecalis. The uricase was present as extracellular enzyme. The extracellular uricase activity of 29.2±0.92 IU was observed, when the isolate was cultured at 30°C and pH 6.5 for 42 h on nutrient broth medium containing 0.4 (%, w/v) uric acid .