Comparative characterization of three D-aspartate oxidases and one D-amino acid oxidase from Caenorhabditis elegans.

Previously, we cloned cDNAs for four Caenorhabditis elegans genes (F20 Hp, C47Ap, F18Ep, and Y69Ap genes) that were annotated in the database as encoding D-amino acid oxidase (DAO) or D-aspartate oxidase (DDO) proteins. These genes were expressed in Escherichia coli, and the recombinant C47Ap and F18Ep were shown to have functional DDO activities, while Y69Ap had functional DAO activity. In this study, we improved the E. coli culture conditions for the production of recombinant F20 Hp and, following purification of the protein, revealed that it has functional DDO activity. The kinetic properties of recombinant C47Ap (DDO-1), F18Ep (DDO-2), F20 Hp (DDO-3), and Y69Ap (DAO) were also determined and compared with recombinant human DDO and DAO. In contrast to the low catalytic efficiency of human DDO for D-Glu, all three C. elegans DDOs showed higher catalytic efficiencies for D-Glu than D-Asp or N-methyl-D-Asp. The catalytic efficiency of C. elegans DAO for D-Ser was substantially lower than that of human DAO, while the C. elegans DAO was more efficient at deamination of basic D-amino acids (D-Arg and D-His) than human DAO. Collectively, our results indicate that C. elegans contains at least three genes that encode functional DDOs, and one gene encoding a functional DAO, and that these enzymes have different and distinctive properties.