HGNC Approved Gene Symbol: WNT7B
Cytogenetic location: 22q13.31 Genomic coordinates (GRCh38): 22:45,920,366-45,977,162 (from NCBI)
For general information about WNTs, see WNT1 (164820).
Gavin et al. (1990) cloned 6 murine Wnt genes, including Wnt7b.
Huguet et al. (1994) derived a partial human WNT7B sequence that they used to examine its expression in human breast cell lines; they found that WNT7B was expressed at similar levels in normal and benign tissues but showed an elevation of about 30-fold in 10% of the tumors.
Rosso et al. (2005) found that the overexpression of either Wnt7b or Dvl (601365) resulted in increased dendritic branching in cultured mouse hippocampal neurons, and branching was blocked by Sfrp1 (604156), a secreted Wnt antagonist. Analysis of downstream events showed that Wnt7b and Dvl1 regulate dendritic development through a noncanonical Wnt pathway by activating Rac (see 602048) and JNK (see 601158).
Lobov et al. (2005) showed that macrophages initiate a cell death program in target cells by activating the canonical WNT pathway. They showed in mice that macrophage WNT7b is a short-range paracrine signal required for WNT pathway responses and programmed cell death in the vascular endothelial cells of the temporary hyaloid vessels of the developing eye. These findings indicated that macrophages can use WNT ligands to influence cell fate decisions--including cell death--in adjacent cells, and raised the possibility that they do so in many different cellular contexts.
Using genetic mouse models, Stenman et al. (2008) found that WNT7A (601570) and WNT7B directly target the vascular endothelium and that the central nervous system uses the canonical Wnt signaling pathway to promote formation and central nervous system-specific differentiation of the organ's vasculature.
By fluorescence in situ hybridization, van Bokhoven et al. (1997) assigned the WNT7B gene to 22q13.3.
Gavin, B. J., McMahon, J. A., McMahon, A. P. Expression of multiple novel Wnt-1/int-1-related genes during fetal and adult mouse development. Genes Dev. 4: 2319-2332, 1990. [PubMed: 2279700] [Full Text: https://doi.org/10.1101/gad.4.12b.2319]
Huguet, E. L., McMahon, J. A., McMahon, A. P., Bicknell, R., Harris, A. L. Differential expression of human Wnt genes 2,3,4, and 7B in human breast cell lines and normal and disease states of human breast tissue. Cancer Res. 54: 2615-2621, 1994. [PubMed: 8168088]
Lobov, I. B., Rao, S., Carroll, T. J., Vallance, J. E., Ito, M., Ondr, J. K., Kurup, S., Glass, D. A., Patel, M. S., Shu, W., Morrisey, E. E., McMahon, A. P., Karsenty, G., Lang, R. A. WNT7b mediates macrophage-induced programmed cell death in patterning of the vasculature. Nature 437: 417-421, 2005. [PubMed: 16163358] [Full Text: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03928]
Rosso, S. B., Sussman, D., Wynshaw-Boris, A., Salinas, P. C. Wnt signaling through Dishevelled, Rac and JNK regulates dendritic development. Nature Neurosci. 8: 34-42, 2005. [PubMed: 15608632] [Full Text: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1374]
Stenman, J. M., Rajagopal, J., Carroll, T. J., Ishibashi, M., McMahon, J., McMahon, A. P. Canonical Wnt signaling regulates organ-specific assembly and differentiation of CNS vasculature. Science 322: 1247-1250, 2008. [PubMed: 19023080] [Full Text: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1164594]
van Bokhoven, H., Kissing, J., Schepens, M., van Beersum, S., Simons, A., Riegman, P., McMahon, J. A., McMahon, A. P., Brunner, H. G. Assignment of WNT7B to human chromosome band 22q13 by in situ hybridization. Cytogenet. Cell Genet. 77: 288-289, 1997. [PubMed: 9284940] [Full Text: https://doi.org/10.1159/000134600]