An In-Silico Study of Stable and Environment-Friendly Oryza sativa Urease

Abstract

Urea is one of the most extensively used fertilizers in agriculture but has a detrimental impact on the environment. One of the strategies to reduce this impact can be engineering modified plants containing urease enzyme with a considerably higher affinity for urea so that the urea applied in the fields can be significantly reduced. In this study, we have selected Oryza sativa Urease and generated stable mutants having a high affinity for urea. We modeled the 3D structure of the enzyme and identified the potential binding sites by analyzing the binding sites of similar proteins, i.e., 48 urea binding proteins. We found that mutation of Arg578 with Cys near the substrate-binding site of Oryza sativa Urease leads to a stable mutant protein that has a higher binding affinity for urea. This study will lead to a generation of environment-friendly, stable, genetically modified rice crop that consumes lesser urea, without compromising with crop productivity.