Antiquitin (ALDH7) is a member of the aldehyde dehydrogenase superfamily. In plants, ALDH7 is inducible upon dehydration and is thus believed to possess an osmoregulatory role. On the other hand, however, its exact physiological function in animals remains elusive. We herein report the isolation of the black seabream (Acanthopagrus schlegeli) antiquitin gene (sbALDH7) and the functional characterization of its promoter region. The 1.6 kb 5'-flanking region of sbALDH7 exhibits an intense promoter activity (30-170 fold of the basal) in five mammalian and fish cell lines of different origins. Progressive 5'-deletion analysis suggests that the core promoter is located within the region -297/+41 whereas a cis-acting repressor of basal transcription is present in the region -878/-297. In silico analysis of this sbALDH7 promoter region does not reveal any osmotic response element. Instead, it contains potential binding sites for cell cycle related cis-elements such as CCAAT displacement protein and cell cycle-dependent element/cell cycle genes homology region.