Medium- and short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase gene and protein families : Three-dimensional structures of MDR alcohol dehydrogenases

In this report we describe the main features of the initially determined alcohol dehydrogenase, that of horse liver, relate this to the human enzyme structures and review recent structural studies on mutants and new complexes of the enzymes. We further review the structure of a bacterial alcohol dehydrogenase to arrive at a coherent picture of medium-chain dehydrogenase/reductase alcohol dehydrogenases in general.