GenEarly: Genetic determination of early male parr maturation in Atlantic salmon natural populations.

Understanding the relative importance of short and long term evolutionary processes in species adaptation is central in evolutionary and ecological genetics because it helps understanding how and how fast species respond to environmental changes. Intraspecific variability is of paramount importance for species adaptation to global changes. Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, is renowned for its life history variability. In particular male can mature early and reproduce before the seaward migration. Previous studies had also showed that this phenotype may be under partial genetic control whose precise mechanism remains yet unknown. The research project GenEarly combines experimental ecology, quantitative genetics and population genomics approaches and use the state of the art in sequencing technology to shed new light on the genetic determinism and the genomic architecture of alternative reproductive tactics in Atlantic salmon natural populations.