Fully grown oocytes derived from Bufo gargarizans maintained at relatively low temperatures (4degreesC, LTE-oocytes) acquire the competence to resume normal meiosis. In contrast, fully grown oocytes derived from toads maintained at relatively high temperatures (28 degreesC, HTE-oocytes) never acquire maturation competence. By suppression subtractive hybridization, we obtained 18 ESTs preliminarily thought to be preferentially expressed in LTE-oocytes; of these, TS1-4 shared homology with the human and mouse NF-YB genes. We cloned the full-length toad NF-YB gene by RACE and identified three alternatively spliced transcripts: tNF-YB1, tNF-YB2, and tNF-YB3 (GenBank Accession Nos. AY442015, AY442016, and AY442017, respectively). Toad NF-YB was differentially transcribed and translated in LTE-oocytes versus HTE-oocytes, likely resulting in differential CCAAT-binding and/or transcriptional activity of NF-Y. Furthermore, toad cyclin 132 was differentially transcribed at high and low temperatures. Taken together, this report of the differential expression of toad NF-YB at different temperatures is the first evidence that temperature may influence and regulate NF-YB expression. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.