A novel salicylaldehyde dehydrogenase involved in catabolism of naphthalene from Pseudomonas putida ND6, NahV, has been identified. NahV exhibited lower identity in amino acid sequence with the classic salicylaldehyde dehydrogenase, NahF, from P. Putida ND6. This is the first report of an isofunctional enzyme of bacterial salicylaldehyde dehydrogenase. Comparison of Km and Vmax values of NahV and NahF demonstrated that NahF has a more efficient catalytic reaction than NahV, while NahV has much higher affinity for salicylaldehyde and NAD+. Both enzymes exhibited broad substrate specificities and catalyzed the oxidation of salicylaldehyde, 5-chlorosalicylaldehyde, formaldehyde, m-nitrobenzaldehyde, o-nitrobenzaldehyde, o-methoxybenxaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, caprylic aldehyde, and glyoxal. However, the relative rates at which the substituted analogs are transformed differ considerably. NahV activity could be enhanced by Fe2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+; whereas NahF activity could only be stimulated by Fe2+. NahF is more stable than NahV at elevated temperatures. Dot-blot hybridization analyses showed that nahF-like genes occurred in all naphthalene-degradation bacteria isolated in this study, whereas nahV-like genes were present in only some naphthalene-degrading bacteria.