Abstract
Zig-zag eel (Mastacembelus armatus) is an important aquaculture fish species that is very popular as a table fish. However, the genetic regulation of gonad development and differentiation is not well understood. Foxl2 has been demonstrated to play a critical role in gonad development and differentiation in fish. In our study, foxl2 was first cloned and characterized from the gonads of zig-zag eel. The complete open reading frame sequence of foxl2 was 918 bp, encoding 305 amino acids. Multiple sequence alignments revealed that foxl2 gene was highly conserved in fish, especially in forkhead domain. Tissue distribution analysis revealed that foxl2 expressed mainly in ovary, gill, eye and brain. At five different embryonic stages, foxl2 mainly expressed at the gastrula stage. Besides, gonad expression pattern revealed the expression of foxl2 increased to peak in stage V of the ovary, while the expression level was highest in stage III of the testis. These results indicated that the foxl2 might play an important role in gonadal development of zig-zag eel.
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