Identifying difference in primordial germ cells between XX female and XY male yellow catfish embryos

•We first cloned the 3’UTR of nos1l, dnd, and vasa in yellow catfish.•Vasa 3’UTR showed high efficiency in labeling PGCs in yellow catfish.•PGC migration route displayed no difference between XX and XY yellow catfish embryos.•XX female embryos had a larger PGC number than XY male embryos in yellow catfish. Primordial germ cells (PGCs) are singled out from somatic cells very early during embryogenesis, then they migrate towards the genital ridge and differentiate into gametes through oogenesis or spermatogenesis. Labeling PGCs with Localized RNAexpression (LRE) technique by fluorescent proteins has been widely applied among teleost species to study the germ cell development and gonad differentiation. In this study, we first cloned and characterized the 3′ untranslated regions (3′UTRs) of nanos homolog 1-like (nos1l), dead end (dnd), and vasa in yellow catfish (Pelteobagrus fulvidraco), and then synthesized the GFP-nos1l/dnd/vasa 3′UTR mRNAs. Each of these three 3′UTRs could label PGCs in yellow catfish embryos, of which, vasa 3′UTR exhibited the highest labeling efficiency. To identify the differences in PGCs at embryonic stage, XX all-female and XY all-male yellow catfish embryos were produced and injected with GFP-vasa 3′UTR mRNA. We observed the PGC migration route in these two monosex embryos from 24 hpf to 7 dpf, and found there was no difference between them. Besides, the PGC number was counted at 48 hpf, and the result showed that the average PGC number in XX females (11.3) was significantly larger than that in XY males (8.1).These findings provide an insight into the development of PGCs in yellow catfish embryos and the relationship between embryonicPGCnumberand thelatergonaddifferentiation.