Substrate specificity of lentil seedling amine oxidase

Copper diamine oxidase from lentil (Lens culinaris) seedlings was shown to be able to catalyze the oxidative deamination of a wide range of aliphatic and aromatic monoamine compounds, including some amino acids. Although the catalytic efficiencies were only 1-3% of that measured with the diamine substrate putrescine, they were still comparable to those of specialized monoamine oxidases. In particular, the lentil enzyme oxidized benzylamine and histamine with K-m and V-max values similar to those found for the mammalian enzymes benzylamine oxidase and histaminase. Cysteamine was found to be a substrate of the enzyme, whereas hypotaurine and taurine were found to be neither substrates nor inhibitors of the enzyme. Quite unexpectedly the aminoacids L-ornithine and L-lysine were oxidized by lentil enzyme, and beta-alanine and gamma-aminobutyric acid were oxidized only at high concentrations of enzyme. These results suggest that enzymes normally classified as diamine oxidases could in fact have a more diversified role in metabolism than recognized so far.