Twist Gene in Golden Pompano Trachinotus ovatus Larvae

In this chapter, the twist gene and its expression pattern in golden pompano are discussed. The golden pompano twist cDNA of 880 bp contains an open reading frame of 507 nucleotides encoding a protein of 168 amino acids. The protein has a molecular weight of 18.93 kDa. The expression of the twist gene increased with fish age after hatching and arrived at the maximum at 3 and 4 DPH. The highest expression level of the twist gene in fish tissues on 18 DPH occurred in the stomach and spleen, whereafter the kidney and brain. On 12 DPH, the expression of twist first increased and then decreased from 23 to 29 °C. On 18 DPH, the rearing temperature had no significant effect on the expression of the twist gene. The temporal variation of twist expression in fish larvae may enhance our understanding of bone ontogeny and formation in fish larvae, and the twist gene expression may serve as a useful indicator in larval rearing management of golden pompano to predict the occurrence of body malformation in the early stage of fish development.