UW launches cutting-edge DNA 'fin-printing' project ...(a vulnerable population are found to be ...)

Using genetic markers is one of the most rapidly growing fields in fisheries today, Jim Seeb says. Current UW faculty are already leaders in using genetic markers to understand where marine fish and shellfish such as cod, abalone and salmon spend their lives, how they adapt to their environments and handle effects of human activities and environmental change.

Groups including state and federal agencies in the United States as well as agencies in Russia, Canada and Japan have been developing baseline genetic information for more than 20 years, but coordinating and merging data has been an ongoing challenge.

"The $4.1 million from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to the UW will help promote development of new genetic markers and provide a pathway for these markers to be shared by interested labs in Asia and North America," Lisa Seeb says. One of the project goals is to cement international relationships with the common databases that can be used to track the migration of Pacific salmon in the Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea.

The Seebs, who've been working for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, are considered leaders in using single nucleotide polymorphism markers, referred to as SNPs and pronounced "snips." Identified by chemically treating a small bit of tissue, SNPs are differences along strands of DNA that roughly match among members of a single population but differ between populations. Salmon hatched in a certain drainage, for example, will share a SNP profile different from that of salmon hatched in other drainages.

A big key to successful databases, the Seebs say, is using a genetic marker that will ensure that instruments in North America and Asia can tell scientists in each place that they are looking at fish from the same population. Each SNP involves just a duo of the chemicals that make up the chains of DNA in animals. This makes using SNPS simpler and easier to stan
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