Recent Advances in Population Genetics Propel Atlantic and Pacific Salmon on Largely Parallel Trajectories

The first decade of this century produced extraordinary advances in molecular genetics.  Creative new applications provide fundamental new insight into formerly intractable questions in conservation.  Atlantic and Pacific salmon have led the field among non-model organisms.  Molecular and analytical methods and new marker classes have been quickly implemented.  Powerful new tools emerged as salmon genetics advanced in parallel with genotyping and genomics. Respective population genetic studies of Atlantic and Pacific salmon have also marched in parallel to a large extent.  Many of the problems faced by geneticists were identical.  Both groups confronted the challenges of transitioning to new marker types and of standardizing and sharing genotypic data among laboratories often representing sovereign nations.  Both groups also faced seemingly intractable biological problems for which genetic methods held great potential and are now bearing fruit.  Here, we examine the parallel trajectories of Atlantic and Pacific salmon, we discuss previous cooperation, and explore current opportunities and limitations for collaboration.  We find some experimental methods are ill suited to one species or the other due to biological differences or differences in management objectives.  Nevertheless, we conclude that despite much on-going communication and cooperation, there are abundant emerging opportunities for more formal collaboration.