title: Entamoeba histolytica has an alcohol dehydrogenase homologous to the multifunctional adhE gene product of Escherichia coli.
abstract: Entamoeba histolytica ferments glucose to ethanol under the anaerobic conditions of the human colon. There is special interest in this metabolic pathway because it provides an opportunity for parasite-specific chemotherapy. Peptide sequences from a 97-kDa E. histolytica protein, which was originally isolated because of extracellular matrix binding properties, were used to clone and sequence a gene that was found to encode an E. histolytica alcohol dehydrogenase and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (EhADH2). The EhADH2 cDNA clone had an open reading frame encoding 870 amino acids with a predicted molecular weight of 95,758. The EhADH2 cDNA clone was identical in 48% of its amino acids to the multifunctional enzyme (alcohol dehydrogenase, acetyl-CoA reductase, and pyruvate-formate-lyase-deactivase) encoded by the Escherichia coli adhE gene. The isolation of the EhADH2 protein helps define a new family of ADH enzymes that may be specific to anaerobic and facultatively anaerobic organisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kairong
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Stanley
mesh_terms: D000426:Alcohol Dehydrogenase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D000445:Aldehyde Oxidoreductases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000235:genetics; D004748:Entamoeba histolytica / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D005109:Extracellular Matrix / Q000378:metabolism; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D017125:Genes, Protozoan; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015800:Protozoan Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D016054:DNA, Protozoan; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D000426:Alcohol Dehydrogenase; D000445:Aldehyde Oxidoreductases; C018699:aldehyde dehydrogenase (NAD(P)+)