Genetic stock structure of bocaccio rockfish, sebastes paucispinis

The stock structure of bocaccio rockfish Sebastes paucispinis has been identified as a key area of uncertainty in management of this threatened marine species.  Prior genetic stock identification efforts have yielded weak to no signal of population divergence along the west coast of the United States and Canada.  In order to better resolve the genetic stock identification pattern within this species, we report preliminary results from 30 polymorphic microsatellite loci assessed from locations that span the species’ range.  Fifteteen anonymous microsatellite loci that have not been assessed in this species are combined with fifeteen microsatellites designed from expressed sequence tags that originate from metabolic genes.  The latter loci may be influenced by local adaptation to environmental parameters and, as in other recent studies of marine fish, be more informative than neutral microsatellites in revealing patterns of genetic stock structure.