SELS (gene)
Selenoprotein S, also known as SELS, is a human gene.
This gene encodes a selenoprotein, which contains a selenocysteine residue at its active site. The selenocysteine is encoded by the UGA codon that normally signals translation termination. The 3' UTR of selenoprotein genes have a common stem-loop structure, the sec insertion sequence, that is necessary for the recognition of UGA as a Sec codon rather than as a stop signal. Studies suggest that this protein may regulate cytokine production, and thus play a key role in the control of the inflammatory response. Two alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding the same protein have been found for this gene.