INHERITANCE OF SMOLTING PHENOTYPES IN BACKCROSSES OF HYBRID STREAM-TYPE X OCEAN-TYPE CHINOOK SALMON (ONCORHYNCHUS-TSHAWYTSCHA)

Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) are ecologically and geographically differentiated into two life history types: ''ocean-type,'' which enter estuaries as fry or fingerlings in the first year of life and rear there for up to 6 wk before migrating to sea, and ''stream-type,'' which migrate seaward as smolts after one or more years in fresh water and are only transient residents in the outer portion of estuaries. Following exposure to a long-day priming photoperiod for 2 mo from the time of first feeding, progeny of stream-type chinook salmon undergo a reduction in growth during summer and remain as parr, whereas progeny of ocean-type chinook salmon and hybrids continue to grow during the summer and develop into underyearling smolts. Male purebred and hybrid F1 progeny of ocean-type and stream-type chinook salmon were backcrossed to females of both parental populations to examine the segregation of photoperiod-independent (smolt) and photoperiod-dependent (parr) phenotypes among progeny. Results of the backcrosses of the hybrid F1 males depended on female type. The backcross to ocean-type females produced progeny that were predominantly smolts, whereas progeny from the backcross to stream-type females segregated into approximately equal numbers of smolts and parr. These results are consistent with Mendelian inheritance of a single major gene with two alleles: a dominant allele for the photoperiod-independent phenotype of ocean-type chinook salmon and a recessive allele for the photoperiod-dependent phenotype of stream-type chinook salmon.