WNT signaling molecules play key roles in carcinogenesis and embryogenesis. Drosophila segment polarity gene Lines (Lin) is essential for Wnt/Wingless-dependent patterning in dorsal epidermis and also for hindgut development. With Wnt signaling, Lin accumulates in the nucleus to modulate transcription of Wnt target genes through association with β-catenin/Armadillo and TCF/Pangolin. Here, human WINS1 and mouse Wins2, encoding proteins with Drosophila Lin homologous domain, were isolated using bioinformatics and cDNA-PCR. Human WINS1 encoded 757-amino-acid protein, and mouse Wins2 encoded 498-amino-acid protein. Human WINS1 and mouse Wins2 showed 60.0% total-amino-acid identity. Lin homologous domain of WINS1 and Wins2 showed 29.4% and 27.2% amino-acid identity with that of Drosphila Lin, respectively. In the human chromosome 15q26 region, WINS1 gene was clustered with ASB7 gene encoding ankyrin repeat and SOCS box-containing protein 7. Human WINS1 mRNA of 2.8-kb in size was expressed in adult testis, prostate, spleen, thymus, skeletal muscle, fetal kidney and brain. This is the first report on molecular cloning and initial characterization of human WINS1 and mouse Wins2

Related Articles