Sox transcription factors play essential roles in a variety of critical physiological processes. Still, members of the sox gene family have not yet been genome-wide identified in shrimps. In this study, a total of five members of the sox gene family were identified from the genome of Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei and classified into three subgroups based on the conserved HMG-box domain. Among them, three belong to the SoxB subgroup (one in B1 and two in B2), one in the SoxC subgroup, and one in the SoxE subgroup. The five sox genes had different sex-biased expression in some tissues. Sox21, soxB1, and sox14 had a higher expression in ovary than in testis. In comparison, sox4 had a male-biased specific expression in the gonad, hepatopancreas, gill, and eyestalk. There was no difference in soxE gene expression between testis and ovary. During embryonic development, the expression level of three sox genes (soxB1, sox21, and soxE) was higher in gastrulation stage compared to previous stages, declined in limb bud stage and then increased in intramembrane nauplius stage; the expression of sox4 was detected in blastula stage and continued to increase in the following two stages and then surged in intramembrane nauplius stage; the highest expression of sox14 was in the fertilized egg stage, and the expression level decreased with the development of the embryo. These results suggest that the shrimp sox gene family may be involved in gametogenesis, tridermogenesis, and neurogenesis.

Sox转录因子在各种关键的生理过程中起着至关重要的作用。尽管如此，尚没有在虾的全基因组范围内鉴定出sox基因家族的成员。在这项研究中，从太平洋白虾凡纳滨对虾的基因组中鉴定出总共5个sox基因家族成员，并根据保守的HMG-box结构域将其分为三个亚组。其中，三个属于SoxB子组（一个在B1中，两个在B2中），一个在SoxC子组中，一个在SoxE子组中。这五个sox基因在某些组织中具有不同的性别偏向表达。Sox21，soxB1和sox14在卵巢中的表达高于在睾丸中的表达。相比之下，sox4在性腺，肝胰脏，腮和眼球中具有男性偏向的特异性表达。睾丸和卵巢之间的soxE基因表达没有差异。在胚胎发育过程中，三个sox基因（soxB1，sox21和soxE）的表达水平在胃形成阶段比前一个阶段高，在肢芽阶段下降，然后在膜内无节状阶段上升；在囊胚期检测到sox4的表达，并在随后的两个阶段持续增加，然后在膜内无节幼体期急剧上升。最高的表达sox14处于受精卵期，表达水平随胚胎的发育而下降。这些结果表明虾sox基因家族可能参与配子发生，皮肤发生和神经发生。