The estuarine tapertail anchovy () is widely distributed in the Yangtze River, the coastal waters of China and Korea, and the Ariake Sound of Japan. It is a commercially important species because of its nutritive value and popularity. However, excess fishing and changes in aquatic ecology have almost caused extinction of this species in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. In recent years, several studies have been performed on pond breeding and artificial propagation, and larval rearing techniques have been established. Thus, the threat to is very sensitive to stress, which often results in death and huge economic losses. Little is known about the mechanism by which loading stress causes death in fish. Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) is synthesized in the corticotrophs and melanotrophs of the anterior and intermediate lobes of the pituitary, respectively, as well as in peptidergic neurons in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus. It is post-translationally cleaved into peptide hormones, including adrenocorticotrophic hormone, -melanocyte stimulating hormone (MSH), N-POMC, and -LPH) in tissue- and cell dependent manners. These peptides exhibit different physiological functions, such as promoting ovarian maturation, lipolysis, inhibiting fat accumulation, regulating osmotic pressure, and reacting to stressors. We cloned the and determined that the full-length cDNA is 1212 bp long, with a 699 bp open reading frame that encoded a 232 amino acid protein. The POMC protein is predicted to contain the typical POMC domains of a signal peptide sequence, the N-terminal region, and the adrenocorticotrophic hormone, -EP domains. Gene expression patterns were detected in different tissues by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerasechain reaction. was expressed strongly in the brain and relatively highly in the gill, kidney, and testis, whereas it was expressed at low levels in the liver, spleen, intestine, head kidney, muscle, and ovary. <0.05) and was significantly up regulated 4 h and 6 h after transport ( expression returned to the control level before stress. The gene plays an important role regulating fat metabolism and stress. Our results provide important clues for breeding and stress control studies in .