Genome-wide identification and transcriptome-based expression analysis of sox gene family in the Japanese flounder Paralichthys olivaceus

Sox genes are transcription factors that ubiquitously exist in animal species, and share a conserved high mobility group(HMG) box. They play important biological roles in diverse developmental processes, such as sex determination and differentiation, chondrogenesis, neurogenesis, and early embryonic development. In this study, we identified 25 sox genes from genome and transcriptome of Japanese flounder Paralichthys olivaceus. These s ox genes could be mainly classified into seven subfamilies(B1, B2, C, D, E, F, and K), and each subfamily exhibited a relatively conserved gene structure. Besides, subfamilies A and G were found exclusively in human and mouse, and sox 32 in subfamily K only existed in teleosts. Compared with other mammals, some s ox genes in teleosts had two duplicates. The loss, duplication, and divergence of sox genes during evolution provided an evidence for whole-genome duplication that occurred in the radiation of teleosts. The expression of Japanese flounder sox genes was also analyzed by FPKM value. Our results showed that certain s ox genes exhibited obviously tissue-specific and spatio-temproal expression. Especially, gonal-basied expression analysis uncovered that s ox7 and s ox2 were ovary-biased, and s ox8 b was testis-biased. Moreover, sox10 a was expressed specifically in ovary, and sox8 a in testis. Therefore this study provide a solid foundation for future functional and evolutionary analysis of sox genes in Japanese flounder.