Genes predict long distance migration and large body size in a migratory fish, Pacific lamprey.

ABSTRACT: Elucidation of genetic mechanisms underpinning migratory behavior could help predict how changes in genetic diversity may affect future spatiotemporal distribution of a migratory species. This ability would benefit conservation of one such declining species, anadromous Pacific lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus). Nonphilopatric migration of adult Pacific lamprey has homogenized population-level neutral variation but has maintained adaptive variation that differentiates groups based on geography, run-timing and adult body form. To investigate causes for this adaptive divergence, we examined 647 adult lamprey sampled at a fixed location on the Columbia River and radiotracked during their subsequent upstream migration. We tested whether genetic variation [94 neutral and adaptive single nucleoti

SUBMITTER: Hess JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4275091 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature