Human mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase: mRNA expression in different tissues using a specific probe isolated from a cDNA expression library.

Using monospecific antibodies against mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH I), cDNA clones were isolated from a human liver cDNA library constructed in the plasmid expression vector pEX. Two overlapping clones pEXAL21 and pEXAL43 containing inserts of 861 bp and 1180 bp respectively, code for the carboxy-terminal end of ALDH I as confirmed by sequence analysis. The messenger RNA of ALDH I was estimated by Northern blot analysis to contain approximately 2350 nucleotides. RNA hybridizations revealed that the ALDH I gene transcription is generally low in fetal tissues. Especially, transcription in the adult liver is up to 5-fold higher than in the fetal liver.