Solute Carrier Family 22, Member 14 (SLC22A14)

SLC22A14 encodes a member of the organic-cation transporter family. It is located in a gene cluster with another member of the family, organic cation transporter like 3. The ORCTL4 gene contains 10 exons and spans approximately 13 kb. Sequence analysis revealed that the predicted 594-amino acid ORCTL4 protein contains 11 transmembrane domains as well as motifs characteristic of membrane transporter proteins. Overall, ORCTL4 shares 32 to 35% protein sequence identity with ORTCL3, OCT1, NKT, and with a group of eukaryotic and prokaryotic sugar-transporting proteins. Northern blot analysis revealed that the 2.3-kb ORCTL4 mRNA was expressed in all tissues tested except for skeletal muscle, which contained a 2.1-kb transcript. The authors also detected an abundant testis-specific 2.4-kb mRNA encoding a truncated protein.