As the conservation challenges increase, new approaches are needed to help combat losses in biodiversity and slow or reverse the decline of threatened species. Genome‐editing technology is changing the face of modern biology, facilitating applications that were unimaginable only a decade ago. The technology has the potential to make significant contributions to the fields of evolutionary biology, ecology, and conservation, yet...

Understanding the genetic mechanisms that facilitate adaptive radiation is an important component of evolutionary biology. Here, we genotyped 82 neutral SNPs, seven SNPs in islands of divergence identified in a previous study (island SNPs), and a region of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) in 32 populations of sockeye salmon to investigate whether conserved genes and genomic regions are involved in adaptive radiation....

Migratory behaviour patterns in animals are controlled by a complex genetic architecture. Rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) is a salmonid fish that spawns in streams but exhibits three primary life history pathways: stream‐resident (fluvial), lake‐migrant (adfluvial) and ocean‐migrant (anadromous). Previous studies examining fluvial and anadromous O . mykiss have identified several genes associated with life history diverg...

Humans by their very nature alter the distribution of species. Be it introduction of exotic species, habitat alterations or construction of barriers, anthropogenic changes provide novel experimental systems for the molecular ecologist to study evolutionary change. These events often provide a contradiction. Effective population sizes are generally low, and introduced populations are typically characterized by reduced diversity...

A whole‐genome duplication ( WGD ) doubles the entire genomic content of a species and is thought to have catalysed adaptive radiation in some polyploid‐origin lineages. However, little is known about general consequences of a WGD because gene duplicates (i.e., paralogs) are commonly filtered in genomic studies; such filtering may remove substantial portions of the genome in data sets from polyploid‐origin species. We demonstr...

Regions of the genome displaying elevated differentiation (genomic islands of divergence) are thought to play an important role in local adaptation, especially in populations experiencing high gene flow. However, the characteristics of these islands as well as the functional significance of genes located within them remain largely unknown. Here, we used data from thousands of SNP s aligned to a linkage map to investigate genom...

Many plants and animals of polyploid origin are currently enjoying a genomics explosion enabled by modern sequencing and genotyping technologies. However, routine filtering of duplicated loci in most studies using genotyping by sequencing introduces an unacceptable, but often overlooked, bias when detecting selection. Retained duplicates from ancient whole‐genome duplications ( WGD s) may be found throughout genomes, whereas r...

Puritz et al . provide a review of several RAD seq methodological approaches in response to our ‘Population Genomic Data Analysis’ workshop (Sept 2013) review (Andrews & Luikart 2014). We agree with Puritz et al . on the importance for researchers to thoroughly understand RADseq library preparation and data analysis when choosing an approach for answering their research questions. Some of us are currently using multiple RAD se...

The genes of the major histocompatibility complex ( MHC ) are an important component of the vertebrate immune system and can provide insights into the role of pathogen‐mediated selection in wild populations. Here, we examined variation at the MHC class II peptide‐binding region in 27 populations of sockeye salmon ( Oncorhynchus nerka ), distributed among three distinct spawning ecotypes, from a complex of interconnected rivers...

Although genetic approaches to questions in fisheries management have been very useful in the past, they have encountered consistent hurdles despite the development of new marker systems. However, recent technological advances in molecular genetics will help to overcome many of these hurdles and are likely to revolutionize fish and fisheries biology. DNA‐sequencing costs have been decreasing exponentially, and recent breakthro...

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are a class of genetic markers that are well suited to a broad range of research and management applications. Although advances in genotyping chemistries and analysis methods continue to increase the potential advantages of using SNPs to address molecular ecological questions, the scarcity of available DNA sequence data for most species has limited marker development. As the number and di...