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| Summary |
Salmon, trout and charr comprise the salmonids,
a group of fish that are of great economic
and societal importance to Canada, particularly
in the coastal, rural and Aboriginal
communities.
This project will expand existing genomic resources for Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout and then extend the resources to brook charr and rainbow smelt. The tools developed will help answer questions that are of economic and social importance to aquaculture, conservation and the environment. Using genomic and proteomic scientific research, this project will yield practical advice for salmonid production in the aquaculture industry and sound recommendations for managing wild stocks and for reducing its impact on wild fisheries and the environment.
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| More on the Science |
Salmonids are members of the Salmonidae
family and include the whitefishes and
ciscos, graylings, and trout, salmon
and charr. Although Atlantic salmon
is the main aquaculture species on both
the west and east coasts of Canada,
there are important markets for rainbow
trout and charr elsewhere in the country.
There are also vibrant commercial fisheries
for wild salmonids and the tourism industry
also relies heavily on sports fisheries
in many parts of the country. As salmonid
aquaculture continues to expand, it
must find ways of minimizing its impact
on wild fisheries and the environment.
There is a need for domesticated stocks
that are resistant to disease, adapt
to local Canadian environments and minimize
escape and impact on wild populations.
A better understanding of how natural
populations of salmonids adapt to local
conditions will benefit agencies that
have to make decisions about stocks
and harvesting plans.
There are also fundamental scientific questions that can be explored using salmonid genomes. The common ancestor of salmonids underwent genome duplication between 20 and 120 million years ago and extant species may be considered pseudo-tetraploid because they are in the process of reverting to a stable diploid state. Therefore, they are ideal organisms to examine the early impact of a genome duplication event that is considered to have played a pivotal role in generating gene diversity and functional specialization. The analysis of this project will help resolve how a genome reorganizes itself to cope with duplicated chromosomes and gene dosage effects and the importance of gene duplications for evolution.
Many of the resources required to conduct the genomic studies on salmonids that have been planned in the cGRASP project, were developed during the previous GRASP project and related projects in Norway, the USA, and the UK. This project will combine and integrate current and future international initiatives with a Consortium for Genomics Research on All Salmonids Project (cGRASP).
cGRASP will extend and expand genomic resources so they are applicable to all salmonids and enable cross-species comparisons of genome structure. Specifically, the project will build physical and genetic maps with the associated genomic resources for Atlantic and Pacific salmon and trout. The researchers will build comparative genomic resources for rainbow smelt, a representative of the common ancestor of salmonids. These expanded genomic tools will answer fundamental scientific questions as well as those that are of economic and social importance to aquaculture, conservation and the environment.
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