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In proteins and peptides, d-aspartic acid (d-Asp) and d-β-Asp residues can be spontaneously formed via racemization of the succinimide intermediate formed from l-Asp and l-asparagine (l-Asn) residues. These biologically uncommon amino acid residues are known to have relevance to aging and pathologies. Although nonenzymatic, the succinimide racemization will not occur without a catalyst at room or biological temperature. In the present study, we computationally investigated the mechanism of succinimide racemization catalyzed by dihydrogen phosphate ion, H2PO4−, by B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) density functional theory calculations, using a model compound in which an aminosuccinyl (Asu) residue is capped with acetyl (Ace) and NCH3 (Nme) groups on the N- and C-termini, respectively (Ace–Asu–Nme). It was shown that an H2PO4− ion can catalyze the enolization of the Hα–Cα–C=O portion of the Asu residue by acting as a proton-transfer mediator. The resulting complex between the enol form and H2PO4− corresponds to a very flat intermediate region on the potential energy surface lying between the initial reactant complex and its mirror-image geometry. The calculated activation barrier (18.8 kcal·mol−1 after corrections for the zero-point energy and the Gibbs energy of hydration) for the enolization was consistent with the experimental activation energies of Asp racemization.