This paper revealed the expression pattern of ERα in the ovoviviparous teleost, Sebastes schlegeli. In this paper, we isolated the cDNA encoding for estrogen receptor alpha of black rockfish (S. schlegeli) from its ovary, named as black rockfish ERα (brfERα). The cDNA sequence of brfERα consists of 2972bp with an open reading frame encoding a 624 amino acid putative protein which exhibits high identities with other teleosts'. The tissue distribution of brfERα mRNA was examined using RT-PCR. BrfERα showed generally expressions in most tissues of female black rockfish, besides, the higher degree of expressions were seen in ovary, liver, duodenum and fat, whereas it had a more restricted distribution in male fish. In ovary, the expression level of brfERα was as similar as the serum levels of E2 and P in female. However, it was a different situation in male, where the serum concentration of E2 showed higher levels after spermiation and Serum concentration of P did not show any significant changes during a year. Based on the present study, it is supposed that brfERα plays an important role in ovary and other target organs during the reproductive cycle, Further studies will focus on the transcriptional regulation and localization of brfERα in gonad in order to get a better understand of the physiological function of brfERα in ovoviviparous teleost. This study indicates that the black rockfish may be a good candidate for understanding the mechanism of estrogen in ovoviviparous fish.
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