Aldo Keto Reductase Family 1, Member C4 (AKR1C4)

AKR1C4 encodes a member of the aldo/keto reductase superfamily, which consists of more than 40 known enzymes and proteins. These enzymes catalyze the conversion of aldehydes and ketones to their corresponding alcohols by utilizing NADH and/or NADPH as cofactors. The enzymes display overlapping but distinct substrate specificity. This enzyme catalyzes the bioreduction of chlordecone, a toxic organochlorine pesticide, to chlordecone alcohol in liver. This gene shares high sequence identity with three other gene members and is clustered with those three genes at chromosome 10p15-p14.The predicted 323-amino acid HAKR proteins share more than 85% identity. Northern blot analysis revealed that HAKRa is expressed as a major 1.4-kb mRNA and a minor 3.5-kb mRNA in liver.