A new GTSeq resource to facilitate multijurisdictional research and
management of walleye Sander vitreus
Abstract
Conservation and management professionals often works across
jurisdictional boundaries to identify broad ecological patterns. These
collaborations help to protect populations whose distributions span
political borders. One common limitation to multijurisdictional
collaboration is consistency in data recording and reporting. This
limitation can impact genetic research which relies on data about
specific markers in an organism’s genome. Incomplete overlap of markers
between separate studies can prevent direct comparisons. Standardized
marker panels can reduce the impact this issue and provide a common
starting place for new research. Genotyping-in-thousands (GTSeq) is one
approach used to create standardized marker panels for non-model
organisms. Here we describe the development, optimization, and early
assessments of a new GTSeq panel for use with walleye (Sander
vitreus) from the Great Lakes region of North America. High
genome-coverage sequencing conducted using RAD-capture provided
genotypes for thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). From
these markers, SNP and microhaplotype makers were chosen that were
informative for genetic stock identification (GSI) and kinship analysis.
The final GTSeq panel contained 500 markers, including 197
microhaplotypes and 303 SNPs. Leave-one-out GSI simulations indicated
that GSI accuracy should be greater than 80% in most jurisdictions. The
false-positive rates of parent-offspring and full-sibling kinship
identification was found to be low. Finally, genotypes could be
consistently scored among separate sequencing runs >94% of
the time. Results indicate that the GTSeq panel we developed should
perform well for multijurisdictional research throughout the Great Lakes
region.