There are three types of NAD(P) + -dependent alcohol dehydrogenase: "medium-chain" zinc-containing enzymes, "short-chain" zinc-lacking enzymes and iron-activated enzymes. Although the medium-chain family and the short-chain family have been characterized in human, the iron-activated alcohol dehydrogenase family seems to exist only in microbial organisms. We have now cloned and characterized an iron-activated alcohol dehydrogenase gene, Fe-containing alcohol dehydrogenase 1 (ADHFe1) in human. The cDNA was isolated from the human fetal brain cDNA library. It contains a long open reading frame, which is not homologous with the other alcohol dehydrogenase isoenzymes characterized in human. The hypothetical alcohol dehydrogenase does, however, show strong homology to the iron-activated alcohol dehydrogenases from microbial organisms. Northern blotting analysis only detected expression in adult liver tissue. At least two different splicing variants were screened by PCR using the multiple tissue cDNA panels as templates.