Six experimental diets containing 100 and 150 g/kg lipid, and 0, 10, and 20 g/kg taurine in a 2 × 3 factorial design were fed to triplicate groups of 30 grouper Epinephelus coioides with an initial weight of 10.5 ± 0.1 g to apparent satiation twice daily for eight weeks. Fish fed diets with 150 g/kg lipid showed an increase in lipid contents of whole-body, muscle and liver, and plasma levels of total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), apolipoprotein B and leptin, but a decrease in whole-body moisture, ash and protein contents, and a down-regulation of mRNA levels of acc, fas and pparα genes in the liver vs fish fed with 100 g/kg lipid, regardless of dietary taurine level. Increasing dietary taurine resulted in an increase in percent weight gain and feed efficiency, whole-body protein and muscle lipid contents, plasma levels of total bile acid and HDL-C, as well as hepatic levels of 3-hydroxy-3-methy1 glutary1 coenzyme A reductase and cholesterol 7 alpha hydroxylase, but a decrease in hepatosomatic index and liver lipid content, plasma levels of TC, LDL-C, apolipoprotein B, and insulin-like growth factor vs taurine-free diets. Furthermore, dietary taurine addition down-regulated the mRNA levels of g6pd and l-fabp genes, and up-regulated the mRNA levels of pparα gene in the liver vs taurine-free diets. The results showed an effect of reducing lipid accumulation of taurine when fish fed the diets with taurine increased from zero to 10 g/kg or fed the 10 g/kg taurine diets with lipid increased from 100 to 150 g/kg. The growth promotion and lipid-lowering effects of taurine are closely associated with the changes of plasma lipid components and hepatic metabolic enzyme activities, as well as the regulation of gene expression of liver lipid metabolism related enzymes of groupers.