title: Polymorphism of the human alcohol dehydrogenase 4 (ADH4) promoter affects gene expression.
abstract: The human alcohol dehydrogenase 4 gene (ADH4) encodes the human pi-alcohol dehydrogenase (pi-ADH), which can contribute to ethanol metabolism at moderate and high concentrations of ethanol. There are no known structural variants of pi-ADH in humans. We report the first polymorphisms in the ADH4 gene, at three sites in the promoter: -192 bp, -159 bp and -75 bp, respectively. To determine whether these variations affected promoter function, different haplotypes of the ADH4 proximal promoter were subcloned into a luciferase reporter vector, and the relative promoter activity analysed in hepatoma cells. One of the three sites had a dramatic effect on promoter activity, while the others did not detectably affect activity. The -75A allele had promoter activity more than twice that of the -75C allele. Alcohol dehydrogenase activity is rate limiting for ethanol oxidation. We hypothesize that the different ADH4 alleles lead to different amounts of pi-ADH in liver, which affects the risk for alcoholism by modulating alcohol metabolism.
authors: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis 46202-5122, USA. edenberg@iupui.edu
authors: H J
authors: HJ
authors: Edenberg
authors: R E
authors: RE
authors: Jerome
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Li
mesh_terms: D000426:Alcohol Dehydrogenase / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017931:DNA Primers; D015870:Gene Expression / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007527:Isoenzymes / Q000235:genetics*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D007527:Isoenzymes; D000426:Alcohol Dehydrogenase