Sm. Pollard et al., ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE REGULATORY LOCUS PGM-1R-ASTERISK AND LIFE-HISTORY TYPES OF JUVENILE ATLANTIC SALMON (SALMO-SALAR), Canadian journal of fisheries and aquatic sciences, 51(6), 1994, pp. 1322-1329
We sampled three juvenile life-history types of Atlantic salmon (Salmo
salar) from Western Arm Brook, Newfoundland, to test whether a regula
tory gene variant PGM-1rb is associated with accelerated life-history
development. Seven nonmigratory parr populations from the Miramichi R
iver, New Brunswick, and the Margaree River, Nova Scotia, were also sa
mpled. Previous studies with rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) indic
ate that the liver-specific regulatory gene variant PGM-1r6 is associ
ated with faster embryonic and life-history development. We found no a
ssociation between variation at PCM-1r and body weight, fork length,
gonadal development, and smelt age. However, the frequency of PGM-1r
was significantly higher in males than in females for combined life-hi
story types from Western Arm Brook. These results suggest that PGM-1r
is sex linked or under strong sex-specific selection in this populati
on. Furthermore, populations with higher frequencies of PGM-1rb tende
d to have higher frequencies of precocious maturation in males.