14-3-3 protein theta is a protein that in humans is encoded by the YWHAQ gene. This gene product belongs to the 14-3-3 family of proteins that mediate signal transduction by binding to phosphoserine-containing proteins. This highly conserved protein family is found in both plants and mammals, and this protein is 99% identical to the mouse and rat orthologs. This gene is upregulated in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It contains in its 5' UTR a 6 bp tandem repeat sequence that is polymorphic; however, there is no correlation between the repeat number and the disease.