In rats expressing TDP-43M337V in astrocytes, there is a reduction in EAAT1/2 glutamate transporters in the spinal cord (Tong et al., 2013) while a loss of EAAT2 protein has been reported in ALS patient motor cortex and spinal cord resulting from the presence of abnormally spliced EAAT2 mRNA variants (Bristol and Rothstein, 1996; Lin et al., 1998). The gene discussed is SLC1A2; the disease is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.