In order to elucidate the genetic mechanism of growth traits in turbot during ontogeny, developmental genetic analysis of the body weights, total lengths, standard lengths and body heights of turbots was conducted by mixed genetic models with additive-dominance effects, based on complete diallel crosses with four different strains of Scophthalmus maximus from Denmark, Norway, Britain, and France. Unconditional genetic analysis revealed that the unconditional additive effects for the four traits were more significant than unconditional dominance effects, meanwhile, the alternative expressions were also observed between the additive and dominant effects for body weights, total lengths and standard lengths. Conditional analysis showed that the developmental periods with active gene expression for body weights, total lengths, standard lengths and body heights were 15–18, 15 and 21–24, 15 and 24, and 21 and 27 months of age, respectively. The proportions of unconditional/conditional variances indicated that the narrow-sense heritabilities of body weights, total lengths and standard lengths were all increased systematically. The accumulative effects of genes controlling the four quantitative traits were mainly additive effects, suggesting that the selection is more efficient for the genetic improvement of turbots. The conditional genetic procedure is a useful tool to understand the expression of genes controlling developmental quantitative traits at a specific developmental period(t-1→t) during ontogeny. It is also important to determine the appropriate developmental period(t-1→t) for trait measurement in developmental quantitative genetic analysis in fish. In order to elucidate the genetic mechanism of growth traits in turbot during ontogeny, developmental genetic analysis of the body weights, total lengths, standard lengths and body heights of turbots was conducted by mixed genetic models with additive-dominance effects, based on complete diallel crosses with four different strains of Scophthalmus maximus from Denmark, Norway, Britain, and France. Unconditional genetic analysis revealed that the unconditional additive effects for the four traits were more significant than unconditional dominance effects, meanwhile, the alternative expressions were also observed between the additive and dominant effects for body weights, total lengths and standard lengths. Conditional analysis showed that the developmental periods with active gene expression for body weights, total lengths, standard lengths and body heights were 15-18, 15 and 21-24, 15 and 24, and 21 and 27 months of age, respectively. The proportions of unconditional / conditional var iances indicated that the narrow-sense heritabilities of body weights, total lengths and standard lengths were all increased systematically. The accumulative effects of genes controlling the four quantitative traits were mainly additive effects, suggesting that the selection is more efficient for the genetic improvement of turbots . The conditional genetic procedure is a useful tool to understand the expression of genes controlling developmental quantitative traits at a specific developmental period (t-1 → t) during ontogeny. It is also important to determine the appropriate developmental period (t-1 → t ) for trait measurement in developmental quantitative genetic analysis in fish.