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Myostatin or GDF-8, a member of the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) superfamily, has been demonstrated to be a negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass in mammals. In the present study, we obtained a 5.64kb sequence of myostatin encoding gene and its promoter from largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides). The myostatin encoding gene consisted of three exons (488bp, 371 bp and 1779bp, respectively) and two introns (390bp and 855 bp, respectively). The intron-exon boundaries were conservative in comparison with those of mammalian myostatin encoding genes, whereas the size of introns was smaller than that of mammals. Se- quence analysis of 1.569kb of the largemouth bass myostatin gene promoter region revealed that it contained two TATA boxes, one CAAT box and nine putative E-boxes. Putative muscle growth response elements for myocyte enhancer factor 2 (MEF2), serum response factor (SRF), activator protein 1 (API), etc.. and muscle-specific Mt binding site (MTBF) were also detected. Some of the transcription factor binding sites were conserved among five teleost species. This information will be useful for studying the tran- scriptional regulation of myostatin in fish.