Genetic Diversity and Population Dynamics of Brown Trout
Summary
The brown trout (Salmo trutta) exhibits marked genetic diversity across its native and introduced ranges, reflecting a complex interplay of post-glacial colonisation, historical hydrological changes and human activities. Major mitochondrial lineages—Atlantic, Danubian, Mediterranean and Adriatic—meet in contact zones shaped by natural dispersal and anthropogenic stocking. High-throughput analyses reveal that gene flow persists along connected river networks, while barriers such as dams, pollution and intensive hatchery releases can drive genetic drift, inbreeding and loss of unique haplotypes. Population dynamics are influenced by demographic bottlenecks linked to metal‐polluted catchments, variable recruitment success under altered flow regimes and competition with stocked conspecifics. Hatchery strains often display reduced heterozygosity and domestication-induced maladaptations, whereas wild populations carry locally adapted alleles conferring resilience to environmental stressors such as temperature extremes and pathogens. Advances in single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) panels and microsatellite markers have improved resolution of fine-scale structure, relatedness and adaptive variation. Integrating phylogeographic history with contemporary demographic data is essential for delineating management units, optimising stocking practices to preserve native diversity and restoring connectivity to support metapopulation persistence.
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Genetic Diversity and Population Dynamics of Brown Trout publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in genetic diversity and population dynamics of brown trout across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Phylogeography: Study of historical and geographical processes shaping genetic lineages.
Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP): A genome position where individual DNA bases vary, used as markers.
Microsatellite: Short tandem DNA repeats used to assess genetic diversity and kinship.
Introgression: Incorporation of genes from one population into another via hybridisation.
Allelic richness: Number of distinct alleles present in a population.
Metapopulation: Network of spatially separated populations linked by dispersal.
References
- Loss of native brown trout diversity in streams of the continental Croatia. Frontiers in Environmental Science (2024).
- Living in a post‐industrial landscape: repeated patterns of genetic divergence in brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) across the British Isles. Diversity and Distributions (2024).
- Comparing RADseq and microsatellites for estimating genetic diversity and relatedness — Implications for brown trout conservation. Ecology and Evolution (2019).
- Human mining activity across the ages determines the genetic structure of modern brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) populations. Evolutionary Applications (2015).
- Development of a large SNPs resource and a low-density SNP array for brown trout (Salmo trutta) population genetics. BMC Genomics (2019).
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