Lin-29 gene from Japanese flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) was cloned by PCR, and its gene sequence is 1 769 bp including a 1 329 bp open reading frame (ORF) which encodes a polypeptide of 442 amino acids. The lin-29 gene was predicted encoding a zinc finger protein and was highly similar to amino acid sequence in other fishes through phylogenetic analysis. BLAST analysis indicated that the lin-29 from P. olivaceus showed an average homology of 95.25 % to Larimichthys crocea. Real-time quantitative PCR revealed that expression level of the lin-29 was the highest during gastrulation stage and in the tissue of brain. The expression of lin-29 was highly up or down-regulated by thyroid hormone (TH) at different stages while thiourea (TU) up-regulated significantly the lin-29 levels. The results showed that LIN-29 played an important role in development and metabolism of P. Olivaceus. These results provided the basic information for further study on the role of lin-29 gene in the development of P. olivaceus.