Glucose Transporter 14 (GLUT14)

Members of the glucose transporter (GLUT) family, including SLC2A14, are highly conserved integral membrane proteins that transport hexoses such as glucose and fructose into all mammalian cells. GLUTs show tissue and cell-type specific expression. By database analysis, followed by PCR of a human testis cDNA library, Wu and Freeze (2002) cloned SLC2A14. They identified 2 alternatively spliced forms. The short isoform has 10 exons and encodes a 497-amino acid protein that shares 94.5% identity with SLC2A3. The long isoform has 11 exons and encodes a 520-amino acid protein that differs from the short isoform by inclusion of exon 1b. SLC2A14 contains 12 transmembrane domains, a putative glycosylation site, and sugar transporter signature motifs. RT-PCR analysis showed that both isoforms were expressed in testis only.