Structure of Liver Alcohol Dehydrogenase at 2.9-Å Resolution

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The conformation of the polypeptide chain in horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.1), as well as the binding sites for some inhibitor molecules, have been determined from x-ray crystallographic data to a resolution of 2.9 A. Each subunit of the dimeric molecule is organized into two parts unequal in size and separated by a wide and deep active-site cleft. The adenosine moiety of the coenzyme is bound within the smaller region. Interactions between these coenzyme-binding substructures define the subunit contact area of the molecule. The "catalytic" zinc atoms are bound at the bottom of the clefts about 20 A from the surface of the molecule. The coenzyme binding region has a main-chain conformation very similar to a corresponding region in lactate and malate dehydrogenase. It is suggested that this substructure is a general one for binding of nucleotides and, in particular, the coenzyme NAD(+).