An investigation into the genetic basis of variation in hypoxia tolerance in Atlantic salmon ...

• Main Author: Lin, Xiang
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2017
• Subjects: Atlantic salmon; Salmo salar
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0354492; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0354492

Episodes of hypoxia are becoming more common along the British Columbia (BC) coast especially in the late summer. When dissolved oxygen drops below optimum levels, fish survival, growth and reproduction are affected; moreover, hypoxia can be lethal to fish, resulting in economic losses to salmon farmers. As a first step towards addressing this challenge for BC salmon farmers, the objectives of this study were to characterize variation in hypoxia tolerance in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) under culture conditions and identify the genetic basis of this variation in the strains of salmon used by the aquaculture producer Marine Harvest Canada. Using time-to-loss-of-equilibrium (LOE) following exposure to acute hypoxia (2.1 mg/L) as an index of hypoxia tolerance, I show that there are significant differences in hypoxia tolerance within and between the strains of Atlantic salmon examined. For adults in seawater, time-to-LOE at 2.1 mg/L DO ranged from 4.6 min to 126.9 min, and the McConnell strain had better ...