Phenotypes and genotypes of brown trout used for breeding experiments in 2014

Adult brown trout were caught via electrofishing around the beginning of the spawning season from the River Aare and its tributaries Gürbe, Worble, Giesse, Kiese, and Rotache (Bern canton, Switzerland). They were kept in the Fischereistützpunkt Reutigen until eggs could be stripped from females. Adults were narcoticised when ready to spawn and gametes were stripped for block-wise full-factorial in vitro fertilisations (e.g. Marques da Cunha et al. 2019). Photographs were taken from all fish, standard length and wet weight were determined, and fin clips were taken for molecular analyses. All fish were then released back into the streams of origin. Samples of 24 freshly fertilized eggs per experimentally produced full-sib family were used for various laboratory experiments (e.g. Marques da Cunha et al. 2019). The remaining embryos were raised in the Fischereistützpunkt Reutigen and used for stocking the streams of parental origin and various nursery streamlets, following the routine of the stocking program of the Bern canton. These stocked fish were later sampled at various stages of their life cycle, and 13 microsatellite markers could be used to assign these fish to their parents.

Marques da Cunha L., Uppal A., Seddon E., Nusbaumer D., Vermeirssen E.L.M., Wedekind C. 2019. No additive genetic variance for tolerance to ethynylestradiol exposure in natural populations of brown trout (Salmo trutta). Evol. Appl. 12(5), 940-950. (doi:10.1111/eva.12767).