SLC26A5 and deafness: The cochlea is the critical organ for the sense of hearing and several structural and metabolic components of the human cochlea have been linked to rare forms of syndromic and non-syndromic deafness, such as the gap-junction protein connexin 26 (encoded by GJB2) [8] and prestin (SLC26A5), the motor protein of the outer hair cells [9].