Search

Delineating population structure helps fishery managers to maintain a diverse "portfolio" of local spawning populations (stocks), as well as facilitate stock‐specific management. In Lake Erie, commercial and recreational fisheries for Walleye Sander vitreus exploit numerous local spawning populations, which cannot be easily differentiated using traditional genetic data (e.g., microsatellites). Here, we used genomic information (12,264 polymorphic loci) generated using restriction site‐associated DNA sequencing to investigate stock structure in Lake Erie Walleye. We found low genetic divergence (genetic differentiation index FST = 0.0006–0.0019) among the four Lake Erie western basin stocks examined, which resulted in low classification accuracies for individual samples (40–60%). However, more structure existed between western and eastern Lake Erie basin stocks (FST = 0.0042–0.0064), resulting in greater than 95% classification accuracy of samples to a lake basin. Thus, our success in using genomics to identify stock structure varied with spatial scale. Based on our results, we offer suggestions to improve the efficacy of this new genetic tool for refining stock structure and eventually determining relative stock contributions in Lake Erie Walleye and other Great Lakes populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybridization and introgression continue to gain recognition as important issues in the management and conservation of native fishes. It is often necessary to identify hybrids in natural populations and to distinguish among individuals of various hybrid categories. Molecular methods are important for these purposes, and it is valuable if researchers have a range of molecular methods to apply, since each method has unique advantages and disadvantages. The determination of the best class of marker for a particular study depends on various factors, including the goals of the study, the resolution required, and the genomic and marker information already available for the taxa of interest. We modified a protocol to generate fluorescent randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (FRAPD) markers for hybridization studies. To our knowledge, this type of marker has not previously been used for hybrid identification. To demonstrate the utility of the modified methods, FRAPD markers were used to evaluate potential reproduction by saugeye (female walleye Sander vitreus × male sauger Sander canadensis) in a central Ohio reservoir. Our approach successfully generated a battery of diagnostic genetic markers that were used to test the hypothesis that young-of-year saugeye were later-generation offspring of saugeye cohorts previously stocked into the reservoir. Alternatively, the fish may have been immigrant first-generation saugeye from other sources. Data obtained from the FRAPD markers provided strong support favoring the alternative hypothesis. These methods provide a very useful tool for distinguishing between pure parentals and various classes of hybrid individuals, both in Sander spp. and in other taxa, offering a powerful and easily developed alternative to other molecular methods of generating informative genetic markers for hybridization studies. Received September 20, 2011; accepted April 5, 2012 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]