The oxidation of L-threonine to 2-amino-ketobutyrate, as catalyzed by L-threonine dehydrogenase, is the first step in the major pathway for threonine catabolism in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Threonine dehydrogenase of E. coli has considerable amino-acid sequence homology with a number of Zn(2+)-containing, medium-chain alcohol dehydrogenases. In order to further explore structure/function interrelationships of E. coli threonine dehydrogenase, 35 alleles of tdh that imparted a no-growth or slow-growth phenotype on appropriate indicator media were isolated after mutagenesis with hydroxylamine. Within this collection, 14 mutants had single amino-acid changes that were divided into 4 groups: (a) amino-acid changes associated with proposed ligands to Zn2+; (b) a substitution of one of several conserved glycine residues; (c) mutations at the substrate or coenzyme binding site; (d) alterations that resulted in a change of charge near the active site. These findings uncover previously unidentified amino-acid residues that are important for threonine dehydrogenase catalysis and also indicate that the three-dimensional structure of tetrameric E. coli threonine dehydrogenase has considerable similarity with the dimeric horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase.