Human urine contains a high concentration of nitrogen and is therefore an interesting source for nutrient recovery. Ureolysis is a key requirement in many processes aiming at nitrogen recovery from urine. Although ureolytic activity is widespread in terrestrial and aquatic environments, very little is known about the urease activity and regulation in specific bacteria other than human pathogens. Given the relatively high salt concentration of urine, marine bacteria would be particularly well suited for biotechnological applications involving nitrogen recovery from urine, and therefore, in this study, we investigated ureolytic activity and its regulation in marine vibrios. Thirteen out of 14 strains showed ureolytic activity. The urease activity was induced by urea, since complete and very rapid hydrolysis, up to 4 g L^–1 h^–1 of urea, was observed in synthetic human urine when the bacteria were pretreated with 10 g L^–1 urea, whereas slow hydrolysis occurred when they were pretreated with 1 g L^–1 urea (14–35% hydrolysis after 2 days). There was no correlation between biofilm formation and motility on one hand, and ureolysis on the other hand, and biofilm and motility inhibitors did not affect ureolysis. Together, our data demonstrate for the first time the potential of marine vibrios as fast urea hydrolyzers for biotechnological applications aiming at nutrient recovery from human urine.

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坎氏弧菌和哈维弧菌的尿素分解活性及其调控与人尿中氮的回收相关

人尿含有高浓度的氮，因此是营养回收的有趣来源。在许多旨在从尿液中回收氮的过程中，尿液溶解是一项关键要求。尽管尿素分解活性在陆地和水生环境中普遍存在，但是对于除人类病原体以外的特定细菌中的脲酶活性和调控知之甚少。鉴于尿中盐分的浓度相对较高，海洋细菌将特别适合涉及从尿中回收氮的生物技术应用，因此，在本研究中，我们研究了尿解酶活性及其在海洋弧菌中的调控。14株菌株中有13株表现出尿素分解活性。尿素酶的活性是由尿素诱导的，因为它可以完全，非常迅速地水解，最高达4 g L ^–1用10 g L ^–1尿素预处理细菌时，在合成人尿液中观察到h – ¹尿素，而用1 g L ^–1尿素预处理细菌则发生缓慢水解（2天后水解14–35％） 。一方面，生物膜的形成与运动性之间没有相关性；另一方面，生物膜的溶解性与生物膜之间的相关性，而生物膜和运动性抑制剂则不影响尿素的溶解。总之，我们的数据首次证明了海洋弧菌作为快速尿素水解物在生物技术应用中的潜力，旨在从人尿中回收营养。