The potential target of ipu-miR-143 was predicted and identified using a luciferase reporter gene assay with HEK293 and CCK cell lines . Bioinformatic analyses indicated that the 3) contains an ipu-miR-143 target site, which perfectly complements the smature ipu-miR-143 sequence. Therefore, we speculate that the gene might act as a direct regulatory target of miR-143 in channel catfish. The pMIR-EB1 report vector containing the ipu-miR-143 complementary sequence was constructed to investigate the target of ipu-miR-143 in channel catfish. Then, pMIR-EB1 and miR-143 mimics were co-transfected into the HEK293 and CCK cells to detect the biological activity of ipu-miR-143. In comparison with the control groups, the miR-143 mimic groups showed significantly lower levels of luciferase expression in the two cell lines (0.05). Luciferase activity of the ipu-miR-143 inhibitor groups was significantly higher than that of the control groups in the CCK cell line (<0.05). Contrarily, there were no significant differences between the inhibitors and control groups in the HEK293 cell line ( gene could be a target gene of ipu-miR-143 and provide valuable information for further research on the post-transcriptional mechanisms of ipu-miR-143 in channel catfish.