Transcription factor Foxl2 is an evolutionarily conserved gene playing pivotal roles in regulation of early ovarian differentiation and maintenance in animals. However, the Foxl2 gene has not been thoroughly studied in hermaphroditic scallops. In this study, we cloned and characterized a Foxl2 (designated as AiFoxl2) from the bay scallop Argopecten irradians irradians. The open reading frame of AiFoxl2 was 1122 bp encoding 373 amino acids residues and contained a conserved forkhead box domain. Quantitative real-time PCR showed that AiFoxl2 was mainly expressed in the ovary. Moreover, the highest expression of AiFoxl2 in the ovary was detected at proliferative stage and growing stage, while the lowest level was found at resting stage. During the embryonic and larval development, expression of AiFoxl2 was found first in fertilized eggs, increased significantly at the blastula stage, and reached peak value at the D-larvae stage. When AiFoxl2 was knocked down, testis development-related genes (Dmrt1, Sox7 and Sox9) were up-regulated significantly while the ovary development-related genes (Vg, HSD14, and GATA-1) were down-regulated manifestly. These findings suggested that AiFoxl2 was a female-related gene in A. i. irradians and may be involved in regulation of ovarian development and differentiation.

转录因子Foxl2是一种进化上保守的基因，在动物早期卵巢分化和维持的调节中起关键作用。然而，尚未在雌雄同体扇贝中彻底研究Foxl2基因。在这项研究中，我们从海湾扇贝Argopecten irradians irradians 中克隆并表征了Foxl2（指定为AiFoxl2）。AiFoxl2的开放阅读框为 1122 bp，编码 373 个氨基酸残基，包含一个保守的叉头框结构域。实时定量 PCR 显示AiFoxl2主要在卵巢中表达。此外，AiFoxl2的最高表达卵巢在增殖期和生长期检测到，而在休眠期检测到最低水平。在胚胎和幼虫发育过程中，AiFoxl2首先在受精卵中表达，在囊胚期显着增加，在D-幼虫期达到峰值。当AiFoxl2被撞倒，睾丸发育相关的基因（DMRT1，SOX7和Sox9的）均显著上调，而卵巢发育相关的基因（Vg的，HSD14和GATA-1 ）为明显下调。这些发现表明AiFoxl2是一个女性相关基因A.i. 辐照度，可能参与卵巢发育和分化的调节。