Ethanol exposure during prenatal development causes fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), the most frequent preventable birth defect and neurodevelopmental disability syndrome. The molecular targets of ethanol toxicity during development are poorly understood. Developmental stages surrounding gastrulation are very sensitive to ethanol exposure. To understand the effects of ethanol on early transcripts during embryogenesis, we treated zebrafish embryos with ethanol during pre-gastrulation period and examined the transcripts by Affymetrix GeneChip microarray before gastrulation. We identified 521 significantly dysregulated genes, including 61 transcription factors in ethanol-exposed embryos. Sox2, the key regulator of pluripotency and early development was significantly reduced. Functional annotation analysis showed enrichment in transcription regulation, embryonic axes patterning, and signaling pathways, including Wnt, Notch and retinoic acid. We identified all potential genomic targets of 25 dysregulated transcription factors and compared their interactions with the ethanol-dysregulated genes. This analysis predicted that Sox2 targeted a large number of ethanoldysregulated genes. A gene regulatory network analysis showed that many of the dysregulated genes are targeted by multiple transcription factors. Injection of sox2 mRNA partially rescued ethanol-induced gene expression, epiboly and gastrulation defects. Additional studies of this ethanol dysregulated network may identify therapeutic targets that coordinately regulate early development.Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is caused by the exposure to ethanol during prenatal developmental 1-3 . FASD patients display a range of morphological deformities and neurological deficits, including characteristic craniofacial dysmorphology, cognitive impairment, sensory defects, motor disabilities and organ deformities. A recent meta-analysis of FASD among children and youth showed the prevalence is approximately 0.8% globally, but it exceeds 1% in 76 countries 4 . The World Health Organization (WHO) European Region has the highest prevalence of FASD (1.98%) followed by the WHO Region of Americas (0.88%) 4 . Among all the countries studied to date, FASD is the most prevalent in South Africa where the prevalence is as high as 11.1% 4 . FASD prevalence is notably higher among special populations, for example, low socioeconomic status populations 5,6 , children in orphanages, people in psychiatric care etc. 4 .Despite various proposed mechanisms to explain FASD etiology, the molecular targets of ethanol toxicity during development are poorly understood. Conception through gastrulation are sensitive periods for ethanol-induced defects 7,8 . During this period stem and progenitor cells transition from pluripotency to one of the three germ layers, and the cells undergo coordinated movements to organize the body plan 9,10 . These effects are regulated transcriptionally, for example, through the maternal to zygotic transition and the pluripotency transcriptional circuit. S...