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Genetics Research Laboratory

Welcome to the Genetics Research Laboratory, providing graduate students and faculty with facilities to perform genetic analysis of individuals, families, populations, and taxonomic groups of fishes.

Techniques:

Our laboratory performs allozyme analysis of protein variation and restriction fragment length polymorphism (rflp) analysis of mtDNA and scDNA. In collaboration with the HSU Biology Department we sequence DNA and genotype microsatellite loci using a Licor DNA Sequencer.

Equipment:

Our laboratory is outfitted with centrifuges, freezers, baths, power supplies, thermocyclers, gel imaging systems, and computers for data analysis.

Research Projects:

California halibut (Paralichthys californicus) periodically occupy Humboldt Bay and provide a fishery. Reproduction is not believed to take place in the bay, and the halibut are thought to be migrants from other regions. Allozyme analysis is being used to contrast halibut from Humboldt Bay, Tomales Bay and Los Angeles harbor in an effort to identify the source population.

 

Genetic differentiation among populations, subspecies, and species of Cottus alueticus, asper, klamathensis, and pitensis is being studied using allozymes.

Anadromous pacific lamprey, Lampetra tridentata, is believed to have given rise to landlocked, dwarf, parasitic and non-parasitic lamprey populations in the Klamath and Sacramento River systems. Systematic and evolutionary relationships between these dwarf landlocked lamprey and pacific and western brook lamprey are being explored using allozymes and mtDNA sequencing.

Reliability of the identification of juvenile steelhead and coastal cutthroat trout and their hybrids.

Juvenile trout and their hybrids are difficult to identify which complicates abundance and distribution surveys. Using rflp analysis of scnDNA marker loci the reliability of field identification is being investigated.

Research projects also include genetic variation in northern California sculpins, origins of dwarf Klamath basin lamprey, and Humboldt Bay halibut origin.