| Summary: | Dissertation (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2012 To determine how inheritance, environment, and hybridization influenced developmental timing, otolith formation, and gill raker development in pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), full and half-sibling families from Auke Creek, Alaska and third generation outbred hybrids between Auke Creek females and Pillar Creek males from Kodiak Island, Alaska (1,000 km distant) were incubated in ambient, chilled, and warmed water. Variation in development time of embryos from the odd-year broodline was primarily influenced by additive genetic factors, whereas no genetic effect was detected in the even-year run. No genotype-by environment (GxE) effects were associated with sires or families in either broodline, indicating that the observed variation in development time was likely the result of phenotypic plasticity. Hybridization (outbreeding) significantly prolonged development time in both broodlines, indicating that the phenotypic effects of outbreeding can last at least three generations. Early otolith development was genetically conserved and canalized, but the phenotypic expression of these genes is plastic and strongly influenced by environmental factors. There was no evidence that local adaptation or outbreeding influenced otolith morphology or shape. Otoliths from fish exposed to thermal stress were bilaterally asymmetrical, whereas the bilateral symmetry of otoliths from outbred fish exhibited evidence of heterosis because they were more symmetrical than their native counterparts. Unlike development time and otoliths, gill raker development was linear and consistently stable in the face of both hybridization and environmental stress. These results make it clear that different biological attributes respond to genetic control and stress in different ways.
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