Sequencing the Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) genome

Coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch) is a culturally and economically important salmon species that spawns across the coastline of the Northern Pacific ocean. However, wild Coho salmon stocks have seen significant declines and have shown little recovery over the past quarter century. The species is a major component of the aquaculture industry in Chile. Coho like other Salmonids experienced a whole-genome duplication event approximately 60–100 MYA resulting in a large genome, high similarity between gene duplicates, gene dosage effects, and varying levels of divergent expression of duplicate genes. There are lingering regions displaying tetraploid inheritance particularly in telomeric regions. In addition there has been a relaxed suppression of transposable elements (TEs) that has led to the high repeat element genomic content. Its genome displays about 97% identity to the Rainbow trout genome. The Coho salmon genome will aid in the development of resources for the management and conservation of wild populations, the analysis of hatchery efficacy and improvements in aquaculture production.