Variation in juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) transcription profiles among and within eight population crosses from British Columbia, Canada.

Phenotypic differences among populations within a species have been reported for a variety of traits, ranging from life history to physiology to gene transcription. Population-level phenotypic variation has been attributed to genetic differences resulting from genetic drift and/or local adaptation as well as environmental differences resulting from plasticity. We studied population- and family-level variation in gene transcription for 22 fitness-related genes, comprising immune, growth, metabolic, and stress processes in Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha).