Isolation, characterisation and embryonic expression of WNT11, a gene which maps to 11q13.5 and has possible roles in the development of skeleton, kidney and lung.

The Wnt gene family encodes a set of signalling molecules, thought to play an important role in key processes of embryonic development. In vertebrates as a whole 20 different Wnt genes have been identified to date, however, a complement of only 16 have been identified in man and for some of these the complete coding sequences are unavailable. We have recently isolated the full-length cDNA sequence of a new human WNT gene, WNT11, investigated its genomic organisation and performed detailed expression studies in early human embryos. These have shown that the expression of human WNT11 is restricted to the perichondrium of the developing skeleton, lung mesenchyme, the tips of the ureteric buds and other areas of the urogenital system and the cortex of the adrenal gland. This, for the first time, provides information for the embryonic expression of human WNT11. We have mapped WNT11 to 11q13.5 and this together with its expression in the perichondrium of the developing skeleton, makes it a plausible candidate gene for HBM, which has been previously linked to markers from this region.