Members of the Sox gene family play crucial roles during reproduction and development, but their genome-wide identification has not yet been performed in large yellow croaker, Larimichthys crocea. In this study, a total of 26 members of the Sox gene family were identified from the genome of large yellow croaker and classified into seven subgroups based on the conserved HMG-box domain they contain. Among the identified Sox gene family members, eight belonged to the SoxB subgroup (five in B1 and three in B2), four belonged to the SoxC subgroup, four belonged to the SoxD subgroup, six belonged to the SoxE subgroup, three belonged to the SoxF subgroup, and one belonged to the SoxK subgroup. During evolution, members of the SoxE subgroup (Sox8, Sox9, Sox10), Sox1, Sox4, Sox6, and Sox11 evolved into two copies, which may be a result of teleost-specific whole-genome duplication. Sox genes were distributed unevenly across 15 chromosomes. The number of introns in large yellow croaker Sox genes varied from 0 to 14. Results of the expression profile during embryogenesis revealed that most of the members of the Sox gene family had lower expression, except several Sox genes, and expression patterns also differed among each Sox gene group and duplicated gene. This study systematically characterized and analyzed the Sox gene family in large yellow croaker and provided new insights into its function during embryogenesis.
Keywords: Larimichthys crocea; Sox gene family; embryogenesis.