Meeting Abstract

32.2  Sunday, Jan. 5 08:15  Genomic imprints of freshwater transitions in the Alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) VELOTTA, J.P.*; SCHULTZ, E.T.; JUE, N.; O’NEILL, R.J.; MICHALAK, P.; MCCORMICK, S.D.; University of Connecticut; University of Connecticut; University of Connecticut; University of Connecticut; Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech; Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center, United States Geological Survey jonathan.velotta@gmail.com

Among fishes, ecological transitions into freshwater environments are often associated with episodes of diversification and adaptive radiation. The functional changes that accompany such transitions, and whether they are predicable or idiosyncratic, have rarely been characterized. We used Alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus) as a model system to test for such changes; Alewives are found in ancestrally anadromous migratory populations and in multiple, independently evolved landlocked populations. We subjected juvenile Alewives from two landlocked populations and one anadromous population to seawater and deionized freshwater challenge and sequenced gill transcriptomes. Overall, restriction to freshwater in Alewives is predictably associated with differences in patterns of expression of well-known osmoregulatory genes, which may be driving divergence in osmoregulatory function.