Mutant rat strain lacking D-amino-acid oxidase

D-amino-acid oxidase (DAO) is known to be associated with schizophrenia. Since the expression of DAO gene had been reported to be very low in LEA rats, we examined LEA/SENDAI rats in detail. These rats did not have DAO activity, enzyme protein or mRNA encoding this enzyme. Sequencing of the 5'-upstream region of the DAO gene revealed the deletion of one triplet in the 15 TAA repeats approximately 700-bp upstream of the transcription start point. A 1.3-kb upstream fragment containing the TAA repeats and the transcription start point was inserted into a reporter vector and was transfected into COS-1, NRK-52E and CCL-PK1 cells. Although the fragments containing 15 or 14 repeats had high promoter activity, the fragment containing 13 repeats had very weak activity. Electrophoretic mobility-shift assays showed that the nuclear extracts from COS-1 and COS-7 cells had proteins that bound to the oligonucleotides containing the TAA repeats. These results suggest that the TAA repeats are important for expression of the DAO gene. The LEA/SENDAI rats lacking DAO would be a useful tool for the investigations aimed at the elucidation of the relationships between this flavoenzyme and schizophrenia.