Genetic basis of adult migration timing in anadromous steelhead discovered through multivariate association testing.

ABSTRACT: Migration traits are presumed to be complex and to involve interaction among multiple genes. We used both univariate analyses and a multivariate random forest (RF) machine learning algorithm to conduct association mapping of 15 239 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for adult migration-timing phenotype in steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Our study focused on a model natural population of steelhead that exhibits two distinct migration-timing life histories with high levels of admixture in nature. Neutral divergence was limited between fish exhibiting summer- and winter-run migration owing to high levels of interbreeding, but a univariate mixed linear model found three SNPs from a major effect gene to be significantly associated with migration timing (p < 0.000005) that explained 46% of

SUBMITTER: Hess JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4874702 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature