Comparative genome mapping between Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and rainbow trout (O. mykiss) based on homologous microsatellite loci

Influence of a growth hormone transgene on the genetic architecture of growth-related traits: A comparative analysis between transgenic and wild-type coho salmon

Genetic engineering has been increasingly applied to many commercially important plant and animal species, generating phenotypic changes that are not observed in natural populations and creating genetic interactions that have not experienced natural selection. The degree to and way in which such human-induced genetic variation interacts with the rest of the genome is currently largely unknown. Integrating such information into ecological and risk assessment frameworks is crucial to understand the potential effects of genetically modified organisms in natural environments. Here, we performed QTL mapping to investigate the genetic architecture of growth-related traits in nontransgenic (NT) and growth hormone transgenic (T) coho salmon with large changes in growth and related physiology, with the aim of identifying how an inserted transgene might influence the opportunity for selection. These fish shared the same parental genetic background, thus allowing us to determine whether the same or different loci influence these traits within the two groups. The use of over 1,700 loci, derived from restriction site-associated DNA sequencing, revealed that different genomic regions were linked with growth over time between the two groups. Additionally, the effect sizes of detected QTL appear to have been influenced by the transgene. Direct comparison of QTL between the T and NT fish during two size-matched periods identified little overlap in their location. Taken together, the results showed that the transgene altered the genetic basis of growth-related traits in this species. The study has important implications for effective conservation and management of wild populations experiencing introduction of transgenes. Evolutionary changes and their ecological consequences may occur at different rates and in different directions in NT versus T individuals in response to selection. Thus, assessments of phenotypic change, and hence ecological risk, should be determined periodically to evaluate whether initial estimates made with founder strains remain valid.

Population genetic analysis of aquaculture salmonid populations in China using a 57K rainbow trout SNP array

Various salmonid species are cultivated in cold water aquaculture. However, due to limited genomic data resources, specific high-throughput genotyping tools are not available to many of the salmonid species. In this study, a 57K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array for rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) was utilized to detect polymorphisms in seven salmonid species, including Hucho taimen, Oncorhynchus masou, Salvelinus fontinalis, Brachymystax lenok, Salvelinus leucomaenis, O. kisutch, and O. mykiss. The number of polymorphic markers per population ranged from 3,844 (O. kisutch) to 53,734 (O. mykiss), indicating that the rainbow trout SNP array was applicable as a universal genotyping tool for other salmonid species. Among the six other salmonid populations from four genera, 28,882 SNPs were shared, whereas 525 SNPs were polymorphic in all four genera. The genetic diversity and population relationships of the seven salmonid species were studied by principal component analysis (PCA). The phylogenetic relationships among populations were analyzed using the maximum likelihood method, which indicated that the shared SNP markers provide reliable genomic information for population genetic analyses in common aquaculture salmonid fishes. Furthermore, this obtained genomic information may be applicable for population genetic evaluation, marker-assisted breeding, and propagative parent selection in fry production.

Sex Chromosome Evolution, Heterochiasmy, and Physiological QTL in the Salmonid Brook Charr Salvelinus fontinalis

Whole-genome duplication (WGD) can have large impacts on genome evolution, and much remains unknown about these impacts. This includes the mechanisms of coping with a duplicated sex determination system and whether this has an impact on increasing the diversity of sex determination mechanisms. Other impacts include sexual conflict, where alleles having different optimums in each sex can result in sequestration of genes into nonrecombining sex chromosomes. Sex chromosome development itself may involve sex-specific recombination rate (i.e., heterochiasmy), which is also poorly understood. The family Salmonidae is a model system for these phenomena, having undergone autotetraploidization and subsequent rediploidization in most of the genome at the base of the lineage. The salmonid master sex determining gene is known, and many species have nonhomologous sex chromosomes, putatively due to transposition of this gene. In this study, we identify the sex chromosome of Brook Charr Salvelinus fontinalis and compare sex chromosome identities across the lineage (eight species and four genera). Although nonhomology is frequent, homologous sex chromosomes and other consistencies are present in distantly related species, indicating probable convergence on specific sex and neo-sex chromosomes. We also characterize strong heterochiasmy with 2.7-fold more crossovers in maternal than paternal haplotypes with paternal crossovers biased to chromosome ends. When considering only rediploidized chromosomes, the overall heterochiasmy trend remains, although with only 1.9-fold more recombination in the female than the male. Y chromosome crossovers are restricted to a single end of the chromosome, and this chromosome contains a large interspecific inversion, although its status between males and females remains unknown. Finally, we identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) for 21 unique growth, reproductive, and stress-related phenotypes to improve knowledge of the genetic architecture of these traits important to aquaculture and evolution.

A High-Density Genetic Linkage Map and QTL Fine Mapping for Body Weight in Crucian Carp (Carassius auratus) Using 2b-RAD Sequencing

A high-resolution genetic linkage map is essential for a wide range of genetics and genomics studies such as comparative genomics analysis and QTL fine mapping. Crucian carp (Carassius auratus) is widely distributed in Eurasia, and is an important aquaculture fish worldwide. In this study, a high-density genetic linkage map was constructed for crucian carp using 2b-RAD technology. The consensus map contains 8487 SNP markers, assigning to 50 linkage groups (LGs) and spanning 3762.88 cM, with an average marker interval of 0.44 cM and genome coverage of 98.8%. The female map had 4410 SNPs, and spanned 3500.42 cM (0.79 cM/marker), while the male map had 4625 SNPs and spanned 3346.33 cM (0.72 cM/marker). The average recombination ratio of female to male was 2.13:1, and significant male-biased recombination suppressions were observed in LG47 and LG49. Comparative genomics analysis revealed a clear 2:1 syntenic relationship between crucian carp LGs and chromosomes of zebrafish and grass carp, and a 1:1 correspondence, but extensive chromosomal rearrangement, between crucian carp and common carp, providing evidence that crucian carp has experienced a fourth round of whole genome duplication (4R-WGD). Eight chromosome-wide QTL for body weight at 2 months after hatch were detected on five LGs, explaining 10.1-13.2% of the phenotypic variations. Potential candidate growth-related genes, such as an EGF-like domain and TGF-β, were identified within the QTL intervals. This high-density genetic map and QTL analysis supplies a basis for genome evolutionary studies in cyprinid fishes, genome assembly, and QTL fine mapping for complex traits in crucian carp.

Salmonid Chromosome Evolution as Revealed by a Novel Method for Comparing RADseq Linkage Maps

Whole genome duplication (WGD) can provide material for evolutionary innovation. Family Salmonidae is ideal for studying the effects of WGD as the ancestral salmonid underwent WGD relatively recently, ∼65 Ma, then rediploidized and diversified. Extensive synteny between homologous chromosome arms occurs in extant salmonids, but each species has both conserved and unique chromosome arm fusions and fissions. Assembly of large, outbred eukaryotic genomes can be difficult, but structural rearrangements within such taxa can be investigated using linkage maps. RAD sequencing provides unprecedented ability to generate high-density linkage maps for nonmodel species, but can result in low numbers of homologous markers between species due to phylogenetic distance or differences in library preparation. Here, we generate a high-density linkage map (3,826 markers) for the Salvelinus genera (Brook Charr S. fontinalis), and then identify corresponding chromosome arms among the other available salmonid high-density linkage maps, including six species of Oncorhynchus, and one species for each of Salmo, Coregonus, and the nonduplicated sister group for the salmonids, Northern Pike Esox lucius for identifying post-duplicated homeologs. To facilitate this process, we developed MapComp to identify identical and proximate (i.e. nearby) markers between linkage maps using a reference genome of a related species as an intermediate, increasing the number of comparable markers between linkage maps by 5-fold. This enabled a characterization of the most likely history of retained chromosomal rearrangements post-WGD, and several conserved chromosomal inversions. Analyses of RADseq-based linkage maps from other taxa will also benefit from MapComp, available at: https://github.com/enormandeau/mapcomp/

Effects of crossovers between homeologs on inheritance and population genomics in polyploid-derived salmonid fishes

A whole genome duplication occurred in the ancestor of all salmonid fishes some 50-100 million years ago. Early inheritance studies with allozymes indicated that loci in the salmonid genome are inherited disomically in females. However, some pairs of duplicated loci showed patterns of inheritance in males indicating pairing and recombination between homeologous chromosomes. Nearly 20% of loci in the salmonid genome are duplicated and share the same alleles (isoloci), apparently due to homeologous recombination. Half-tetrad analysis revealed that isoloci tend to be telomeric. These results suggested that residual tetrasomic inheritance of isoloci results from homeologous recombination near chromosome ends and that continued disomic inheritance resulted from homologous pairing of centromeric regions. Many current genetic maps of salmonids are based on single nucleotide polymorphisms and microsatellites that are no longer duplicated. Therefore, long sections of chromosomes on these maps are poorly represented, especially telomeric regions. In addition, preferential multivalent pairing of homeologs from the same species in F1 hybrids results in an excess of nonparental gametes (so-called pseudolinkage). We consider how not including duplicated loci has affected our understanding of population and evolutionary genetics of salmonids, and we discuss how incorporating these loci will benefit our understanding of population genomics.

The development and characterization of a 57K single nucleotide polymorphism array for rainbow trout

In this study, we describe the development and characterization of the first high-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping array for rainbow trout. The SNP array is publically available from a commercial vendor (Affymetrix). The SNP genotyping quality was high, and validation rate was close to 90%. This is comparable to other farm animals and is much higher than previous smaller scale SNP validation studies in rainbow trout. High quality and integrity of the genotypes are evident from sample reproducibility and from nearly 100% agreement in genotyping results from other methods. The array is very useful for rainbow trout aquaculture populations with more than 40 900 polymorphic markers per population. For wild populations that were confounded by a smaller sample size, the number of polymorphic markers was between 10 577 and 24 330. Comparison between genotypes from individual populations suggests good potential for identifying candidate markers for populations' traceability. Linkage analysis and mapping of the SNPs to the reference genome assembly provide strong evidence for a wide distribution throughout the genome with good representation in all 29 chromosomes. A total of 68% of the genome scaffolds and contigs were anchored through linkage analysis using the SNP array genotypes, including ~20% of the genome assembly that has not been previously anchored to chromosomes.

Comparative mapping between Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) and three other salmonids suggests a role for chromosomal rearrangements in the retention of duplicated regions following a whole genome duplication event

Whole genome duplication has been implicated in evolutionary innovation and rapid diversification. In salmonid fishes, however, whole genome duplication significantly pre-dates major transitions across the family, and re-diploidization has been a gradual process between genomes that have remained essentially collinear. Nevertheless, pairs of duplicated chromosome arms have diverged at different rates from each other, suggesting that the retention of duplicated regions through occasional pairing between homeologous chromosomes may have played an evolutionary role across species pairs. Extensive chromosomal arm rearrangements have been a key mechanism involved in re-dipliodization of the salmonid genome; therefore, we investigated their influence on degree of differentiation between homeologs across salmon species. We derived a linkage map for coho salmon and performed comparative mapping across syntenic arms within the genus Oncorhynchus, and with the genus Salmo, to determine the phylogenetic relationship between chromosome arrangements and the retention of undifferentiated duplicated regions. A 6596.7 cM female coho salmon map, comprising 30 linkage groups with 7415 and 1266 nonduplicated and duplicated loci, respectively, revealed uneven distribution of duplicated loci along and between chromosome arms. These duplicated regions were conserved across syntenic arms across Oncorhynchus species and were identified in metacentric chromosomes likely formed ancestrally to the divergence of Oncorhynchus from Salmo. These findings support previous studies in which observed pairings involved at least one metacentric chromosome. Re-diploidization in salmon may have been prevented or retarded by the formation of metacentric chromosomes after the whole genome duplication event and may explain lineage-specific innovations in salmon species if functional genes are found in these regions.

Insight into genomic changes accompanying divergence: genetic linkage maps and synteny of Lucania goodei and L. parva reveal a Robertsonian fusion

Linkage maps are important tools in evolutionary genetics and in studies of speciation. We performed a karyotyping study and constructed high-density linkage maps for two closely related killifish species, Lucania parva and L. goodei, that differ in salinity tolerance and still hybridize in their contact zone in Florida. Using SNPs from orthologous EST contigs, we compared synteny between the two species to determine how genomic architecture has shifted with divergence. Karyotyping revealed that L. goodei possesses 24 acrocentric chromosomes (1N) whereas L. parva possesses 23 chromosomes (1N), one of which is a large metacentric chromosome. Likewise, high-density single-nucleotide polymorphism-based linkage maps indicated 24 linkage groups for L. goodei and 23 linkage groups for L. parva. Synteny mapping revealed two linkage groups in L. goodei that were highly syntenic with the largest linkage group in L. parva. Together, this evidence points to the largest linkage group in L. parva being the result of a chromosomal fusion. We further compared synteny between Lucania with the genome of a more distant teleost relative medaka (Oryzias latipes) and found good conservation of synteny at the chromosomal level. Each Lucania LG had a single best match with each medaka chromosome. These results provide the groundwork for future studies on the genetic architecture of reproductive isolation and salinity tolerance in Lucania and other Fundulidae.

A dense linkage map for Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) reveals variable chromosomal divergence after an ancestral whole genome duplication event

Comparisons between the genomes of salmon species reveal that they underwent extensive chromosomal rearrangements following whole genome duplication that occurred in their lineage 58−63 million years ago. Extant salmonids are diploid, but occasional pairing between homeologous chromosomes exists in males. The consequences of re-diploidization can be characterized by mapping the position of duplicated loci in such species. Linkage maps are also a valuable tool for genome-wide applications such as genome-wide association studies, quantitative trait loci mapping or genome scans. Here, we investigated chromosomal evolution in Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) after genome duplication by mapping 7146 restriction-site associated DNA loci in gynogenetic haploid, gynogenetic diploid, and diploid crosses. In the process, we developed a reference database of restriction-site associated DNA loci for Chinook salmon comprising 48528 non-duplicated loci and 6409 known duplicated loci, which will facilitate locus identification and data sharing. We created a very dense linkage map anchored to all 34 chromosomes for the species, and all arms were identified through centromere mapping. The map positions of 799 duplicated loci revealed that homeologous pairs have diverged at different rates following whole genome duplication, and that degree of differentiation along arms was variable. Many of the homeologous pairs with high numbers of duplicated markers appear conserved with other salmon species, suggesting that retention of conserved homeologous pairing in some arms preceded species divergence. As chromosome arms are highly conserved across species, the major resources developed for Chinook salmon in this study are also relevant for other related species.