CLONING OF NOVEL WILMS-TUMOR GENE (WT1) CDNAS - EVIDENCE FOR ANTISENSE TRANSCRIPTION OF WT1

WT1 is a tumor suppressor gene that has been implicated in Wilms tumor , and is expressed in cells of mesodermal origin. The Wit-1 gene is lo cated approximately 2 kb from the WT1 gene, and is expressed coordinat ely with WT1. WT1 and Wit-1 are bi-directionally transcribed from the same promoter region, We have screened a human fetal kidney cDNA libra ry to identify novel WT1 cDNA clones. Here we report the cloning of cD NA clones which span part of intron 1 of WT1, exon 1, upstream sequenc es between WT1 and Wit-1 and part of the Wit-1 gene. Northern blot and RNAase protection analysis using subcloned fragments of the cDNAs cor responding to regions from within intron 1 of WT1 suggest that a 7-10 Kb RNA is expressed in human fetal kidney, which overlaps with WT1 and is transcribed in the same direction as Wit-1.