Mammalian polyamine synthesis is regulated by a unique feedback mechanism. When cellular polyamine levels increase, antizyme, an ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) inhibitory protein, is induced by polyamine-dependent translational frameshifting. Antizyme not only inhibits ODC, a key enzyme in polyamine synthesis, it also targets the enzyme degradation by the 26S proteasome. Furthermore, it suppresses cellular uptake of polyamines. Previously, we isolated two zebrafish antizymes with different expressions and activities. This suggested that a common feedback mechanism of polyamine metabolism might operate in mammals and zebrafish (Danio rerio). In the present study, cDNAs of zebrafish ODC and antizyme inhibitor, another regulatory protein that inhibits antizyme action, were cloned. The presence of ODC and antizyme inhibitor mRNAs was confirmed by Northern blotting in embryos and adult fish, as well as in a zebrafish-derived cell line (BRF41). The activity of the ODC cDNA expression product was inhibited by short and long zebrafish antizymes, and recombinant zebrafish antizyme inhibitor reversed this inhibition. In the BRF41 cells, the ODC half-life was considerably longer than that of mammalian ODC but shorter than that of Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Spermidine elicited a rapid decay of ODC activity and ODC protein in a protein synthesis-dependent manner.