Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium responsible for gastric ulcers, can survive in the stomach (where the pH is as low as 1.5) in part because it synthesizes large amounts of the enzyme urease.
(a) Write the reaction for urea hydrolysis by urease.
(b) Explain why this reaction could help establish a more hospitable environment for H. pylori, which tolerates acid but prefers to grow at near-neutral pH.