Background:
The aldehyde dehydrogenases are a family of isozymes that may play a major role in the detoxification of aldehydes generated by alcohol metabolism and lipid peroxidation. This particular gene spans about 20 kb of genomic DNA and is composed of 9 coding exons. The gene is highly expressed in kidney and lung. The functional significance of this gene as well as the cellular localization of its product are presently unknown. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene.