Allozyme Studies of Pacific Salmonids with Nonlethal Sampling of Fin Tissue

Abstract
We evaluated the use of nonlethal sampling of bony fin tissue to obtain allozyme data for Pacific salmonids Oncorhynchus spp. Enzyme activity was detected for 53 loci, including many polymorphic loci, in caudal fin tissue sampled from chinook salmon O. tshawytscha, chum salmon O. keta, coho salmon O. kisutch, sockeye salmon O. nerka, and steelhead O. mykiss. This represents 61% of all the loci (N = 87) routinely analyzed using eye, heart, liver, and muscle tissue. Anal, dorsal, caudal, pelvic, and pectoral fin tissues all expressed the same loci with approximately the same strength of activity. Fin tissue sampled from adult salmonids yielded a slightly greater number of loci than did juvenile samples. Sufficient allozyme activity was observed for 9 mg of juvenile chinook salmon and steelhead fin tissue for some loci; however, the minimal amount of tissue needed to obtain all detectable loci was 54 mg. We performed computer simulations to test the feasibility of using allozyme data from fin tissue...