Temporal and spatial instability in neutral and adaptive (MHC) genetic variation in marginal salmon populations

The role of marginal populations for the long-term maintenance of species’ genetic diversity and evolutionary potential is particularly timely in view of the range shifts caused by climate change. The Centre-Periphery hypothesis predicts that marginal populations should bear reduced genetic diversity and have low evolutionary potential. We analysed temporal stability at neutral microsatellite and adaptive MHC genetic variation over five decades in four marginal Atlantic salmon populations located at the southern limit of the species’ distribution with a complicated demographic history, which includes stocking with foreign and native salmon for at least 2 decades. We found a temporal increase in neutral genetic variation, as well as temporal instability in population structuring, highlighting the importance of temporal analyses in studies that examine the genetic diversity of peripheral populations at the margins of the species’ range, particularly in face of climate change

A Second-Generation Genetic Linkage Map of Tilapia (Oreochromis spp.)

We constructed a second-generation linkage map of tilapia from the F(2) progeny of an interspecific cross between Oreochromis niloticus and Oreochromis aureus. The map reported here contains 525 microsatellite and 21 gene-based markers. It spans 1311 cM in 24 linkage groups, for an average marker spacing of 2.4 cM. We detected associations of sex and red color with markers on linkage group 3. This map will enable mapping and selective breeding of quantitative traits important to the economic culture of tilapia as a food fish and will contribute to the study of closely related cichlids that have undergone explosive adaptive radiation in the lakes of East Africa