Abstract: Fulllength cDNAof Gibel carp pougene was cloned from gastrula SMART cDNA library through RACE2PCR1 It consists of 2421bp, with an ORF of 1416 bp encoding a protein of 471aa1 The complete amino acid sequence shares 9110% identity with zebrafish pougene product1 Temporal and spatial expression pattern of gibel carp pouduring embryogenesis was investi gated by RT2PCR and whole mount in situ hybridization1 RT-PCR result indicates that there is maternal transcript of gibel carp pou in early embryos and the zygotic pou-transcript is abundantly expressed from blastula stage1 Large amount of pou-transcript is detected at both 50% and 90% epiboly stages1 At 100% epiboly stage, however, the pou-transcript reduces rapidly and disappears at the later embryogenesis1 Whole mount in situ hybridization shows that the maternal transcript ubiquitously exists in all blastomere cells1 In blastula embryos and 50% epiboly embryos, the zygotic pou-transcript is also distributed in every blastomere cell1 At the stage of 90% epiboly, expression of pou-converges to the dorsal midline of embryos and locates in two waves of lateral neural plate and two transverse stripes in the brain region1 In embryos at 100% epiboly, pou-transcript is restricted in the neural plate and areas of presumptive midbrain and hindbrain1 From somite stage, gibel carp poucan not be detected any more, which is consistent with the RT2PCR result1 The expression pattern of gibel carp pou-suggests that this gene should play an important role during early stages of embryogenesis1 It might regulate the formation of neural plate and the fate of midbrain and hindbrain cells during early embryogenesis1