Testosterone and its physiologically active metabolite 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone are selective, allosteric inhibitors of the gamma subunit-containing isozymes of class I human alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) with apparent Ki values for testosterone at pH 7.4 between 3.5 and 16 X 10(-6) M. Testosterone inhibition is noncompetitive with respect to ethanol, NAD+, 1,10-phenanthroline, and 4-methylpyrazole, identifying a regulatory site distinct from the catalytic site. Testosterone does not inhibit the class I isozymes composed only of alpha and/or beta subunits and only weakly inhibits the class II and III isozymes. Importantly, none of these human ADH isozymes oxidize or reduce the steroids with the delta 4 double bond or 5 alpha configuration. The allosteric effect of testosterone, restricted to the gamma subunits of human ADH, suggests unique metabolic specificities and pathways for these isozymes, apart from all others. This inhibition may ultimately be critical to an identification of their function(s). Analogous considerations of other metabolic effectors might further lead to similar insights regarding the alpha and beta subunit-containing isozymes as well as the class II and III ADH.