Glucuronidase

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glucuronidase, beta
Identifiers
Symbol	GUSB
HUGO	4696
Entrez	2990
OMIM	253220
RefSeq	NM_000181
UniProt	P08236
Other data
EC number	3.2.1.31
Locus	Chr. 7 q22

Glucuronidases are glycoside hydrolases that cleave glucuronic acid glycosides (glucuronides). Human glucuronidase is a lysosomal glycosidase, and hydrolyzes glucuronide moieties from proteins. Glucuronidase exhibits both endo-glycosidase and exo-glycosidase activities, meaning that it can cleave monosaccharides from the middle of a chain or from the end.

In eukaryotes, glucuronidase is located in the lysosome and plays an important role in recycling cellular components.

beta-Glucuronidase is used as a reporter gene to monitor gene expression. Monitoring glucuronidase activity using a so-called (GUS assay) allows determination of the spatial and temporal expression of the gene being monitored.

Preparations of beta-glucuronidase from the snail Helix pomatia are commercially available and referred to by the trademark Glusulase. These enzymes preparations are used to digest the ascus of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae after sporulation.

E. coli is among the few bacteria that can synthezise glucuronidase and this trait is commonly used to identify it.