Solute carrier family 7, member 14 is aprotein that in humans is encoded by the SLC7A14gene.[5]
This gene is predicted to encode aglycosylated, cationic amino acidtransporter protein with 14 transmembrane domains. This gene is primarily expressed in skinfibroblasts,neural tissuee,photoreceptor cells,hair cells and primaryendothelial cells and its protein is predicted to mediatelysosomal uptake of cationic amino acids. In mice, this gene is expressed in thephotoreceptor layer of theretina where itsexpression increases over the course of retinal development and persists in the mature retina. The gene is also highly expressed in all vertebrate hair cells. In the mammalian inner ear, this gene is expressed in neonatal inner and outer hair cells during development and becomes specifically expressed in inner hair cells in adult animals,.[6][7]Mutations in this gene are associated with autosomal recessiveretinitis pigmentosa andhearing loss in the form ofauditory neuropathy.
