Going the distance to test local adaptation in Coho salmon

The mechanisms underlying local adaptation, where populations evolve traits that confer advantages to the local environment, is a central topic for understanding evolution in natural systems. Conservation goals for species at risk often include defining population boundaries by identifying gene dive...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular ecology 2023-02, Vol.32 (3), p.539-541
Main Authors: Horn, Rebekah L., Narum, Shawn R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acclimatization
Adaptation
Adaptation, Physiological - genetics
Anadromous species
Animals
Climate change
Evolutionary conservation
Fresh Water
Genetic diversity
Genome
Genomics
Oncorhynchus kisutch - genetics
Salmon
Salmonids
Single-nucleotide polymorphism
Spawning
Spawning grounds
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Summary:The mechanisms underlying local adaptation, where populations evolve traits that confer advantages to the local environment, is a central topic for understanding evolution in natural systems. Conservation goals for species at risk often include defining population boundaries by identifying gene diversity, genetic differentiation, and adaptation to local environments. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Rougemont et al. (2022) combine genome‐wide SNP data with an extensive set of landscape variables to study the genomic mechanisms of local adaptation in the entire North American range of Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), representing one of the largest studies of its kind. Migration distance, defined as the distance adult Coho salmon migrate from the ocean to their freshwater spawning ground, was found to be the primary factor driving local adaptation in this species. With climatic changes altering flow regimes and therefore the success of Coho salmon to return to spawning grounds, understanding environmental drivers and the genomic basis for migration is essential in the conservation of anadromous salmonids.
ISSN:0962-1083
1365-294X
DOI:10.1111/mec.16792