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Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), a newly identified member in the renin–angiotensin system (RAS), acts as a negative regulator of ACE. It is mainly expressed in cardiac blood vessels and the tubular epithelia of kidneys and abnormal expression has been implicated in diabetes, hypertension and heart failure. The mechanism and physiological function of this zinc metallopeptidase in mammals are not yet fully understood. Non-mammalian vertebrate models offer attractive and simple alternatives that could facilitate the exploration of ACE2 function. In this paper we report the in silico analysis of Ace2 genes from the Gallus (chicken), Xenopus (frog), Fugu and Tetraodon (pufferfish) genome assembly databases, and from the Danio (zebrafish) cDNA library. Exon ambiguities of Danio and Xenopus Ace2s were resolved by RT-PCR and 3′RACE. Analyses of the exon–intron structures, alignment, phylogeny …