Genome assembly of Pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha)
Study Type:
Other
Abstract: Pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) is a species of anadromous salmon native to streams and rivers of the northern Pacific Ocean. They are often referred to by the common name humpbacks due to the large hump that appears behind the head in sexually mature males. Populations are separated into even and odd year classes, as the strict two-year life cycle means returning year classes never mix. Self-sustaining populations have been ascribed primarily from Puget sound in Washington State up through to the MacKenzie River, and from the Japanese island of Hokkaido through to the Lena River in the Arctic Ocean (Behnke 2002) – however, pink salmon are noted for straying resulting in populations described as far south as Central California, and moving deeper into the Arctic Ocean and up the MacKenzie River – recent reports of potential straying include to Newfoundland, Greenland, Norway and northern Europe. This work aims to establish genomic baseline for the species by assembling a reference genome from an odd-year pink salmon haploid. Gene annotation is provided by Illumina RNA-seq across 19 distinct tissues. Resequencing of pink salmon, sampled range-wide and across both year-classes, aims to categorize geographic and year-class defining variation genome-wide.