Documenting genetic diversity of wild Eastern Oyster populations towards improving production

东方牡蛎CRASSOSTREA VERGINICA是一种重要的商业和生态物种，其自然分布范围包括所有沿海省份。它也在魁北克和纽芬兰种植。尽管它们很重要，但我们对它们的种群遗传结构知之甚少。这些信息不仅对野生牡蛎引种和转移的管理至关重要，而且对孵化亲鱼计划的建立和管理也是至关重要的。L拥有并经营着加拿大大西洋最大的贝类孵化场，向大西洋各省出口种子。拟议的项目旨在以尖端的种群基因组分析为基础，最终完成一项全面的分析和出版工作，以便能够量化野生牡蛎种群的关键特征，包括诸如遗传分化的数量和程度、有效种群规模的估计以及当地适应的证据等关键信息。到目前为止，我们的结果表明，尽管抗病的PEI亲代进行了大规模的康复转移，但在地方和区域尺度上存在着高度显著的种群分化。这些结果表明我们对加拿大东部牡蛎多样性的看法发生了深刻的转变，并提出了在面临相当大的历史和当代干扰的情况下牡蛎遗传多样性的起源和维持的问题。拟议的项目将扩展正在进行的分析，以揭示这种多样性模式背后的驱动力。我们将为当前的亲鱼采集活动和繁育计划制定具体的建议，并准备和提交我们的结果以供发表。这将加强雇员再培训局的亲鱼管理战略，提高其种子在水产养殖生产中的表现，为其选育计划提供信息，并将大规模转移对邻近野生种群的潜在遗传影响降至最低。

The eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, is a commercially and ecologically important species whose naturalrange includes all the Maritime Provinces. It is also cultivated in Quebec and Newfoundland. Despite theirimportance, we know very little about their population-genetic structure. This information is critical not only tothe management of wild oyster introductions and transfers, but also in the establishment and management ofhatchery broodstock programs. L'Étang Ruisseau Bar Ltd. (ERB) owns and operates Atlantic Canada's largestshellfish hatchery, exporting seed to all Atlantic provinces. The proposed project aims at finalising a thoroughanalysis and publication based on cutting-edge population-genomics analyses that allowed quantifying keyfeatures of wild oyster populations, including critical information such as the amount and extent of geneticdifferentiation, estimates of effective population size, and evidence for local adaptation. Our results to dateshowed that despite the massive rehabilitation transfers of disease-resistant PEI broodstock, there is highlysignificant population differentiation at local and regional scales. These results represent a profound shift in ourview of oyster diversity in Eastern Canada and raises questions about the origin and maintenance of oystergenetic diversity in the face of considerable historical and contemporary disturbance. The proposed project willextend ongoing analyses to uncover the driving forces behind this pattern of diversity. We will develop specificrecommendations for current broodstock collection activities and breeding program, as well as prepare andsubmit our results for publication. This will enhance ERB's broodstock management strategy, increasing theperformance of their seed in aquaculture production, inform their selective breeding program, and minimize thepotential genetic impacts of large-scale transfers on neighbouring wild populations.