Sarcosine Oxidase (SAO)

Sarcosine oxidase is an enzyme that catalyzes the oxidative demethylation of sarcosine to yield glycine, H2O2, 5,10-CH2-tetrahydrofolate in a reaction requiring H4-tetrahydrofolate and oxygen. Corynebacterial sarcosine oxidase is a heterotetramer and is produced as an inducible enzyme when Corynebacterium sp.is grown with sarcosine as source of carbon and energy. Sarcosine oxidase from Arthrobacter sp. TE1826 (SoxA) tightly binds with the coenzyme flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD). The amino-terminal region of this enzyme was recognized as a part of the FAD-binding domain by homology search analysis.  However, some of them were reactivated by chloride ion. Their spectral profiles also became close to that of wild type in the presence of chloride ion. These results strongly suggest that the inhibition of interaction of enzyme with FAD was caused by the substitution in the motif and that it could be recovered under different conditions.