WAP Four Disulfide Core Domain Protein 11 (WFDC11)

WFDC11 encodes a member of the WAP-type four-disulfide core (WFDC) domain family. The WFDC domain, or WAP signature motif, contains eight cysteines forming four disulfide bonds at the core of the protein, and functions as a protease inhibitor. Most WFDC gene members are localized to chromosome 20q12-q13 in two clusters: centromeric and telomeric. This gene belongs to the telomeric cluster.

Although this protein was isolated in a region containing several WAP proteins and was defined as a WAP protein, it does not contain a classical WAP domain. Characteristic features of the genes are that the upstream promoter regions are devoid of TATA-boxes and that the coding nucleotides are divided into distinct exons for the signal peptide and for each WAP domain.