Expression profiles of amh and foxl2 in Schizothorax kozlovi, and their response to temperature during the early developmental stage

To elucidate the role of amh and foxl2 in sex differentiation of the teleost fish Schizothorax kozlovi , the full-length cDNAs were cloned from the mature testis and ovary by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE), and their relative mRNA expression levels were determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction among tissues and temperature groups. The complete amh and foxl2 cDNAs of S. kozlovi were 2060 bp and 1750 bp, which encoded 568 and 306 amino acids, respectively. The amh were expressed only in gonads, while foxl2 was expressed in the gills, brain and gonads, both exhibiting relatively high tissue specificity. The amh exhibited sex-specific expression pattern in the gonads. No sex differences in the foxl2 expression were observed in the brain and gonads, but significant sex differences were found in the gills. No significant differences were found in the foxl2 expression, from the larval to the juvenile stage, and also between different temperature groups. However, significant differences were found in the expression levels of amh from the larval (12–63 days posthatching (dph)) to the juvenile stage (190 dph), and also among the 18 ∘ C and 10 ∘ C groups at 31 dph. This result suggested that amh plays an important role in male sex differentiation of S. kozlovi during the early developmental stage, but no similar effect was observed in foxl2 .