Respiratory-chain NADH dehydrogenase (EC 1.6.5.3) [1,2] (also known as complex I or NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase) is an oligomeric enzymatic complex located in the inner mitochondrial membrane which also seems to exist in the chloroplast and in cyanobacteria (as a NADH-plastoquinone oxidoreductase). Among the 25 to 30 polypeptide subunits of this bioenergetic enzyme complex there are fifteen which are located in the membrane part, seven of which are encoded by the mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes of most species. The most conserved of these organelle-encoded subunits is known as subunit 1 (gene ND1 in mitochondrion, and NDH1 in chloroplast) and seems to contain the ubiquinone binding site.

The ND1 subunit is highly similar to subunit 4 of Escherichia coli formate hydrogenlyase (gene hycD), subunit C of hydrogenase-4 (gene hyfC). Paracoccus denitrificans NQO8 and Escherichia coli nuoH NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase subunits also belong to this family [3].

We have developed two signature patterns based on conserved regions of this subunit.