Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 28, 2026

High-Throughput Expression and Purification of Human Solute Carriers for Structural and Biochemical Studies
Published on: September 29, 2023
The solute carrier (SLC) complement of the human genome: phylogenetic classification reveals four major families
Robert Fredriksson1, Karl J V Nordström, Olga Stephansson
1Department of Neuroscience, Unit of Functional Pharmacology, Uppsala University, BMC, Uppsala SE 75124, Sweden. robert.fredriksson@neuro.uu.se
Abstract:
Solute carriers (SLCs) is the largest group of transporters, embracing transporters for inorganic ions, amino acids, neurotransmitters, sugars, purines and fatty acids among other substrates. We mined the finished assembly of the human genome using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) obtaining a total of 384 unique SLC sequences. Detailed clustering and phylogenetic analysis of the entire SLC family showed that 15 of the families place into four large phylogenetic clusters with the largest containing eight SLC families, suggesting that many of the distinct families of SLCs have a common evolutionary origin. This study represents the first overall genomic roadmap of the SLCs providing large sequence sets and clarifies the phylogenetic relationships among the families of the second largest group of membrane proteins.
Related Concept Videos
Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons
Protein Families
Protein Families
Pharmacogenetics of Drug Transporters: P-Glycoprotein and Solute Carrier Transporters
Membrane Transporters
Transporters are mainly composed of alpha-helices, built from bundles of ten or more helices traversing the plasma membrane. The solute-binding sites are located midway, where some of the helices are broken or distorted, making space for the binding site through...
Microbial Classification System

