Genetic comparison of salmon (Salmo salar L.) from the White Sea and the Atlantic ocean

Abstract

Samples of salmon (Salmo salar) from River Kachkovka and R. Nilma in northem Russia were analysed by starch gel electrophoresis and compared to three Norwegian stocks, R. Neiden in northern Norway and R. Øyre and R. Hop on the west-coast. The aim of the study is to calibrate population genetic methods in Norwegian and Russian laboratories. The initial step in this process is to compare starch gel electrophoresis and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of salmon stocks, to facilitate comparison of data sets obtained by laboratories in Russia and Westem Europe thereby increasing the knowledge about the genetic relationship between salmon populations from the East-Atlantic and the Kola peninsula and the White Sea. The comparison includes the following polymorphic loci: AAT-4*, IDDH-2*. IDHP-3*, MDH- 3, 4*, MEP-2*, ESTD* as well as the newly discovered polymorphic loci FBAW-3* and TPI- 3*. Samples were run side by side on gels, and the results show that the alleles found in the Russian stocks are the same as those found in the Norwegian stocks, although the two electrophoretic methods lead to differences in designations of alleles. A polymorphism in ESTD* which involves a *94 allele was observed in salmon from the two Russian stocks and in R. Neiden. This allele was absent in the two other Norwegian stocks and in a major brood stock of farmed salmon in Norway. The IDHP-3* 116 allele was found in unusual high frequencies in the Russian stocks and in R. Neiden. Thus, the variability observed at these two loci gives some promise for the possibility in the future to distinguish salmon stocks from the northern part of Norway and Russia from stocks further south along the Norwegian coast.