Two protocols for the extraction and quantification of urease are described. Both procedures
are very similar in principle but vary in scale and in technical aspects.
Basic principle:
Extraction of urease from the plant material
Elimination of low molecular weight substances from the extract
(these often interfere with the chemistry used for the following quantitative assay)
Quantification of urease by determining a time course of the amount of ammonium released from urea (using the indophenol reaction).
Use which protocol?
Small scale protocol
The small scale protocol has been developed for leaf samples, but can potentially be used on any other type of sample as well. It requires less physical effort, is a bit quicker and allows the processing of more samples at a time than the large scale protocol. It is therefore the method of choice.
Large scale protocol
The large scale protocol was developed first. It is very robust and might be preferable if you need larger amounts of sample.
