Inherited factor XI (FXI) deficiency is a rare autosomal recessive bleeding disorder in most populations except for Ashkenazi Jews. In this report, a 25-year-old Chinese female FXI deficiency case has been studied. Routine clotting tests showed significantly prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time (69.5 s, control 35 +/- 10 s) while prothrombin time (12.3 s, control 13 +/- 3 s)was normal. FXI:C and FXI:Ag were 2.6% and 2.5%, respectively, indicating that this case was cross-reacting material negative. The activities of other coagulation factors and liver function were in normal range. The DNA sequence results of the 15 exons and their boundaries of F11 gene revealed a novel G3733C missense mutation in exon 2, and a recurrent C16642T nonsense mutation in exon 8. The G3733C mutation caused G-1R substitution in FXI signal peptide, which might impair the protein's secretion and introduced a new BssSI enzyme digestion site. The C16642T mutation led a premature stop codon at amino acid position 263(Q263Term). G-1R and Q263Term compound heterozygous mutations in F11 gene were the cause of FXI deficiency for this proband. G-1R mutation was a novel F11 gene mutation causing inherited FXI deficiency.