The effects of resistant and sensitive alleles on survivorship, weight, and heterozygosity in the fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:372522

Schlueter, M; Guftman, S ^[1]

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1. Miami Univ., Oxford, OH (United States)

In three separate acute copper exposures a highly significant (p = 0.0001) negative relationship was detected between fish weight and survivorship. Overall heterozygosity was not related to survivorship. The effects of two single loci IDHP 1* and MDH-2* were shown to be partially responsible for these results. For the IDHP-1* locus allele *a was associated with increased copper survivorship; however, it was also associated with small size. Conversely, the allele *a at the MDH-2* locus, which was present in higher frequencies in larger fish, was associated with decreased survivorship. If the genotype at an individual locus strongly affects survivorship, being a homozygote at that locus may be more significant to survivorship than overall individual heterozygosity. These results suggest that genetic selection for one characteristic may have a negative impact on other characteristics. These results may help explain unusual relationships between weight and other characteristics and survivorship found in other studies.

• OSTI ID: 372522
• Report Number(s): CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS
BIOLOGICAL STRESS
COPPER
FATHEAD MINNOW
GENOTYPE
TOXICITY
WATER POLLUTION