Genomic population structure of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Cape Fear River

Striped Bass, Morone saxatilis (Walbaum, 1792), is an anadromous fish species that supports fisheries throughout North America and is native to the North American Atlantic Coast. Due to long coastal migrations that span multiple jurisdictions, a detailed understanding of population genomics is required to untangle demographic patterns, understand local adaptation, and characterize population movements. This study used 1256 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci to investigate genetic structure of 477 Striped Bass sampled from 15 locations spanning the North American Atlantic coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada to the Cape Fear River, United States (US). We found striking differences in neutral divergence among Canadian sites, which were isolated from each other and US populations, compared with US populations that were much less isolated. Our SNP dataset was able to assign 99% of Striped Bass back to six reporting groups, a 39% improvement over previous genetic markers. Using...