Genetic Comparison Between Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasi) and a Norwegian Fjord Stock of Atlantic Herring (Clupea harengus)

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Abstract
Genetic studies on populations of Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus L.) in Norwegian seawaters have revealed a number of genetically distinct fjord populations. One population in Balsfjord in northern Norway was nearly fixed for several alleles that were very rare in the Atlanto-Scandian herring stock. A comparison with a sample of Pacific herring (Clupea pallasi) from British Columbia demonstrated that these alleles were identical to the more common alleles in this species. Genetic distance estimates based on six polymorphic loci demonstrated that Balsfjord herring were more similar to Pacific herring. Balsfjord and Pacific herring were also similar in vertebrae number and spawning behaviour. Restriction fragment analyses of mitochondrial DNA using five restriction enzymes revealed distinct clones that separated different herring groups. Nucleotide sequence divergence among groups was small.
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