Macrhybopsis tetranema genomic resources for conservation and management

Historically, Peppered Chub (Macrhybopsis tetranema) was found in the upper Arkansas River Basin in parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Peppered Chub is now extirpated from >94% of its historic range with the only remaining population restricted to 218 kilometers (kms) of the South Canadian River between Ute Lake (New Mexico) and Lake Meredith (Texas). Such restricted range makes this species extremely vulnerable to extinction through stochastic environmental events (e.g., drought) and/or demographic factors (e.g., recruitment failure, mortality caused by disease). Peppered Chub is listed as an endangered species and 1,719 river kms were proposed as critical habitat. The goal of this project is to develop genomic tools for conservation genomics of this species which in turn will provide information for management actions.