Function
5α-reductases convert testosterone, the male sex hormone, into the more potent dihydrotestosterone:
-
Testosterone.
-
Dihydrotestosterone
Note the major difference — the Δ4,5 double-bond on the A (leftmost) ring. (The other differences between the diagrams are unrelated to chemical structure.)
These enzymes also participate in the creation of such neurosteroids as allopregnanolone and THDOC.
Read more about this topic: 5-alpha Reductase
Famous quotes containing the word function:
“Advocating the mere tolerance of difference between women is the grossest reformism. It is a total denial of the creative function of difference in our lives. Difference must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic.”
—Audre Lorde (1934–1992)
“The function of literature, through all its mutations, has been to make us aware of the particularity of selves, and the high authority of the self in its quarrel with its society and its culture. Literature is in that sense subversive.”
—Lionel Trilling (1905–1975)
“My function in life is not to be a politician in Parliament: it is to get something done.”
—Bernadette Devlin (b. 1947)