TRANSFERRIN POLYMORPHISM IN COHO SALMON, ONCORHYNCHUS-KISUTCH, AND APPLICATION TO GENETIC STOCK IDENTIFICATION

The blood protein transferrin is an important source for identifying g enetic variation in coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch, with starch gel electrophoresis. We present new data for transferrin allele frequenci es for 48 samples of coho salmon collected at 34 different locations f rom Oregon to southern British Columbia. To analyze transferrin allele frequencies from a larger geographic area, data from various sources were compiled for 135 samples from sites from California to southern B ritish Columbia. In a statistical analysis of temporal variation withi n locations, 26 of 65 pairwise comparisons (41%) showed significant di fferences between samples (P<0.05). An analysis of variance revealed s ignificant between-locale variability and no significant within-locale variability due to whether or not, the brood gears of the samples wer e three years apart. Relative gene diversity values were 22.3% between geographic regions, 2.1% between stocks within geographic regions, 3. 1% between temporal comparisons, and 72.5% for within-sample variation . Total genetic diversity (H-T) was 0.5867 and the average genetic div ersity within populations (H-s) equaled 0.425. The samples showed gene tic variation that was related to geographic location. Applications of transferrin data to genetic stock identification are discussed in rel ation to these results.