Pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) adults are the smallest of the five Pacific salmon native to the western Pacific Ocean. Pink salmon are also the most abundant of these species and account for a large proportion of the commercial value of the salmon fishery worldwide. A two-year life history of pink salmon generates temporally isolated populations that spawn either in even-years or odd-years. To uncover the influence of this genetic isolation, reference genome assemblies were generated for each year-class and whole genome re-sequencing data was collected from salmon of both year-classes. The salmon were sampled from six Canadian rivers and one Japanese river. At multiple centromeres we identified peaks of Fst between year-classes that were millions of base-pairs long. The largest Fst peak was also associated with a million base-pair chromosomal polymorphism found in the odd-year genome near a centromere. These Fst peaks may be the result of a centromere drive or a combination of reduced recombination and genetic drift, and they could influence speciation. Other regions of the genome influenced by odd-year and even-year temporal isolation and tentatively under selection were mostly associated with genes related to immune function, organ development/maintenance, and behaviour.

Chum salmon are ecologically important to Pacific Ocean ecosystems and commercially important to fisheries. To improve the genetic resources available for this species, we sequenced and assembled the genome of a male chum salmon using Oxford Nanopore read technology and the Flye genome assembly software (contig N50: ∼2 Mbp, complete BUSCOs: ∼98.1%). We also resequenced the genomes of 59 chum salmon from hatchery sources to better characterize the genome assembly and the diversity of nucleotide variants impacting phenotype variation. With genomic sequences from a doubled haploid individual, we were able to identify regions of the genome assembly that have been collapsed due to high sequence similarity between homeologous (duplicated) chromosomes. The homeologous chromosomes are relics of an ancient salmonid-specific genome duplication. These regions were enriched with genes whose functions are related to the immune system and responses to toxins. From analyzing nucleotide variant annotations of the resequenced genomes, we were also able to identify genes that have increased levels of variants thought to moderately impact gene function. Genes related to the immune system and the detection of chemical stimuli (olfaction) had increased levels of these variants based on a gene ontology enrichment analysis. The tandem organization of many of the enriched genes raises the question of why they have this organization.

Salmon lice have plagued the salmon farming industry and have negatively impacted salmon populations in the wild. In response, researchers have generated high density genetic maps, genome assemblies, transcriptomes, and whole-genome resequencing data to better understand this parasite. In this study, we used long-read sequencing technology to update the previous genome assemblies of Atlantic Ocean salmon lice with a more contiguous assembly and a more comprehensive gene catalogue of Pacific Ocean salmon lice. We were also able to further characterize genomic features previously identified from other studies by using published resequenced genomes of 25 Atlantic and 15 Pacific salmon lice. One example, was further characterizing the ZW sex-chromosomes. For both the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean salmon lice subspecies, we found that the female W-chromosome is only a small fraction of the Z-chromosome and that the vast majority of the W and Z-chromosome do not contain conserved regions (i.e., pseudoautosomal regions). However, conserved orthologous protein sequences can still be identified between the W and Z-chromosomes.

Chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) is the species with the widest geographic range of the anadromous Pacific salmonids,. Chum salmon is the second largest of the Pacific salmon, behind Chinook salmon, and considered the most plentiful Pacific salmon by overall biomass. This species is of significant commercial and economic importance: on average the commercial chum salmon fishery has the second highest processed value of the Pacific salmon within British Columbia. The aim of this work was to establish genomic baseline resources for this species. Our first step to accomplish this goal was to generate a chum salmon reference genome assembly from a doubled-haploid chum salmon. Gene annotation of this genome was facilitated by an extensive RNA-seq database we were able to create from multiple tissues. Range-wide resequencing of chum salmon genomes allowed us to categorize genome-wide geographic variation, which in turn reinforced the idea that genetic differentiation was best described on a regional, rather than at a stock-specific, level. Within British Columbia, chum salmon regional groupings were described at the conservation unit (CU) level, and there may be substructure within particular CUs. Genome wide associations of phenotypic sex to SNP genetic markers identified two clear peaks, a very strong peak on Linkage Group 15, and another on Linkage Group 3. With these new resources, we were better able to characterize the sex-determining region and gain further insights into sex determination in chum salmon and the general biology of this species.

We present a chromosome-level, long-read genome assembly as a reference for northern pike (Esox lucius) where 97.5% of the genome is chromosome-anchored and N50 falls at 37.5 Mb. Whole-genome resequencing was genotyped using this assembly for 47 northern pike representing six North American populations from Alaska to New Jersey. We discovered that a disproportionate frequency of genetic polymorphism exists among populations east and west of the North American Continental Divide (NACD), indicating reproductive isolation across this barrier. Genome-wide analysis of heterozygous SNP density revealed a remarkable lack of genetic variation with 1 polymorphic site every 6.3kb in the Yukon River drainage and one every 16.5kb east of the NACD. Observed heterozygosity (H o ), nucleotide diversity (π), and Tajima's D are depressed in populations east of the NACD (east vs. west: H o : 0.092 vs 0.31; π : 0.092 vs 0.28; Tajima's D: -1.61 vs -0.47). We confirm the presence of the master sex determining (MSD) gene, amhby, in the Yukon River drainage and in an invasive population in British Columbia and confirm its absence in populations east of the NACD. We also describe an Alaskan populationwhere amhby is present but not associated with male gender determination. Our results support that northern pike originally colonized North America through Beringia, that Alaska provided an unglaciated refugium for northern pike during the last ice age, and southeast of the NACD was colonized by a small founding population(s) that lost amhby.