We have characterized a novel human gene (C14orf1) which codes for a polypeptide homologous to the yeast protein Yer044c. Both the human and yeast proteins are predicted to be highly basic and to present several potential, evolutionarily conserved, transmembrane domains. C14orf1 mRNA was found to be particularly abundant in the adult testis and in several cancer cell lines. The gene maps to chromosome band 14q24. Further investigations should be performed to understand the role of C14orf1 in the testis and the significance of its strong expression in the cell lines studied here.