Abstract:The tyrosinase protein family contains key enzymes for regulating the synthesis of melanin, which plays an irreplaceable role in the formation of melanocytes. However, the underlying mechanism of the Tyr gene family in body-color formation is unclear in Plectropomus leopardus. P. leopardus is an economically important tropical fish in China. The body color of farmed P. leopardus has different degrees of degradation, which seriously affects its quality and market price. In this study, a total of five Tyr genes were identified from the whole genome of P. leopardus, and amino acid sequence alignment showed that Tyr family proteins in P. leopardus were highly conserved in relation to homologous proteins of other species, especially the typical tyrosinase functional domain of this family. The phylogenetic and comparative synteny indicated the gain and loss of Tyr genes after teleost-specific whole-genome duplication (3R-WGD). In addition, the results of qRT-PCR showed that the expression levels of all members of Tyr genes in the skin tissues of black individuals were significantly higher than those of red individuals (P<0.05). This paper preliminarily identified and analyzed the role of the Tyr gene family in the formation of body color, providing a basis for further analyzing the evolution and functional mechanism of the tyrosine protease gene family in Plectropomus leopardus.