Solute carrier family

Definition

A solute carrier family is a family of solute carriers (a type of membrane transport protein) grouped together based on similarity in structure and transport function. Solute carrier families are non-intersecting (so any protein should be in at most one solute carrier family). There are about 66 solute carrier families that together cover over 400 membrane transport proteins.

Each solute carrier family has a unique number (its index); the indices from 1 to 66 are in use, one for each family.