Signatures of Natural Selection Among Lineages and Habitats in Oncorhynchus mykiss

We used high throughput genotyping to screen a genome wide panel of 266 SNPs for the economically and culturally important salmonid Oncorhynchus mykiss.  Samples included 805 individuals from 11 anadromous and resident populations from the northwestern United States and British Columbia and represented two major lineages including paired populations of each life history within single drainages of each lineage.  Overall patterns of variation affirmed clear distinctions between lineages and in most instances, isolation by distance within them.  Evidence for divergent selection at eight candidate loci included significant landscape correlations, particularly with temperature.  High diversity of two non-synonymous mutations within the peptide binding region of a MHC class II gene provided signatures of balancing selection.  Weak signals for potential selection between sympatric resident and anadromous populations were revealed from genome scans and allele frequency comparisons.  Our results suggest an important adaptive role for immune-related functions and present a large genomic resource for future studies of O. mykiss and other salmonids.