In other species: dog , pig , taurine cattle

Categories: Neoplasm

Links to possible relevant human trait(s) and/or gene(s) in OMIM: 194070 (trait) , 194071 (trait) , 194072 (trait) , 194080 (trait) , 194090 (trait)

Mendelian trait/disorder: unknown

Disease-related: yes

Cross-species summary: A rapidly developing malignant mixed tumour of the kidneys. The Wilms' tumour gene in human and mouse was cloned in the early 1990s. Since its peptide is involved in the development of the urinary-genital tract and the gonads, the gene is of considerable interest in relation to the genetic basis of sexual development. As described in the species summaries, the gene has been amplified by PCR in sheep, cattle and pig, and has been mapped in cattle and sheep. Future studies of this gene should shed interesting light on sexual development, and hence on the occurrence of abnormalities of sexual development in domestic animal species.

Species-specific description: In 1995, Vaiman et al. designed conserved primers from mouse and human sequence data, and successfully amplified a 150-bp fragment of the homologous gene in sheep, cattle and pig, which includes a dinucleotide (TG) microsatellite. Exploiting the polymorphism of the microsatellite in a somatic-cell hybrid panel, they showed that the Wilms tumour gene in sheep is syntenic with sheep chromosome 15.