Functional ecology of genes in fisheries conservation.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Canada has one-fifth of the world's freshwater resources and the world's longest coastline. This habitat is important to many fish species with high commercial, recreational, and cultural value. Researching and managing such a vast resource requires state-of-the-art technologies and the best scientific techniques. This research program will leverage these technologies and techniques to address applied and basic questions in conservation, fisheries management, evolution and ecology. ***Striped bass have spawning habitats from Quebec to Florida and support important recreation and commercial fisheries in Atlantic Canada. Management is complicated by the poor understanding of the genetic composition of the species, as individuals from multiple spawning origins mix during their ocean migrations. Also, some rivers that historically supported spawning, like the St. John and St. Lawrence Rivers, have not supported spawning in the last three decades, though there are some signs of recovery. I will use genomic techniques to characterize the entire species at high resolution. This will give managers a tool to genetically assign ocean migrating individuals to their origin spawning group. Also, I will highlight adaptations that make Canada's northern populations unique. ***The genomics era has resulted in many fish species in Canada having their genomes fully sequenced (Striped Bass, Atlantic Salmon, Atlantic Cod, American Eel). However, many of the genes in these have not been described in the major genetic models (mouse, human, yeast), and this has led a large portion of genomes to contain unknown genes. In my research program, I will design new online tools that allow comparisons between genomes of non-model organisms, making cross-species genomics and new gene discovery possible. This will further improve the efficacy of genomics for Canada's fish and also clarify the role of ecology in gene function of other organisms. Overall, this research will be used to better assess and manage regional fish populations using the most state-of-the-art genomics techniques and train the next generation of scientists in the new required skills.***********