Figure 1. The ALDH1A3(C174Y) variant and its C. elegans ortholog,
alh-1(C172Y): (A) Domains and sequence conservation between human ALDH1A3 and its C. elegans ortholog,
alh-1. The three domains in human ALDH1A3 are colored differently: the NAD binding domain is shown in blue, the catalytic domain in pink, and the oligomerization domain in yellow. Overall, the human ALDH1A3 is conserved with C. elegans ALH-1 at 77% of amino acid positions. The protein sequence alignment around the ALDH1A3 C174Y residue is highlighted in the bottom row. (B) In our C. elegans model, the
alh-1 (C172Y) missense mutant displayed a significantly reduced fecundity. Approximately 20 animals were tested in each strain. Each dot represents one hermaphrodite. P< 0.0001 via non-parametric Mann-Whitney test.