Solute Carrier Family 16, Member 4 (SLC16A4)

The full-length MCT5 cDNA predicts a 487-amino acid protein with 10 to 12 transmembrane domains. MCT5 shares between 25% and 30% amino acid identity with MCT1, MCT2, MCT4, MCT6, and MCT7. The C-terminal tail of MCT5 is much shorter than those of other family members. The authors speculated that this may have resulted from the insertion of the Alu sequence that is present in the 3-prime UTR of MCT5. The 5-prime UTR of MCT5 has 5 short overlapping open reading frames, or minicistrons, which indicate that it may be subject to translational regulation. Northern blot analysis detected a 3.0-kb transcript in human tissues; compared to other family members, MCT4 has a unique tissue distribution.