Aldehyde Dehydrogenase 8 Family, Member A1 (ALDH8A1)

ALDH8A1 belongs to the aldehyde dehydrogenase family of proteins. It plays a role in a pathway of 9-cis-retinoic acid biosynthesis in vivo. This enzyme converts 9-cis-retinal into the retinoid X receptor ligand 9-cis-retinoic acid, and has approximately 40-fold higher activity with 9-cis-retinal than with all-trans-retinal. Therefore, it is the first known aldehyde dehydrogenase to show a preference for 9-cis-retinal relative to all-trans-retinal. Two transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms have been identified for this gene.Sequence analysis predicted that the 487-amino acid ALDH8A1 protein contains the 23 invariant residues and 4 conserved regions typical of the ALDH superfamily. It also has a cofactor-binding motif and a cys residue that serves as an active-site nucleophile.