Balkan Trout Restoration Group Blog

Nate's field trip

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:22:00 +0000

Nate was with Angling club of Tolmin for a week.

One day, two papers

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 18:32:00 +0000

BTRG had a lucky day: two papers were published on the same day.

A short paper about brown trout was published in Croatian journal. Unlike most of our research on brown trout, this paper is not about wild population. We genotyped fish from Fishing Club Bled fish farm to estimate the level of introgression of non native (Atlantic) genetic markers into native (Danubian) brown trout. Introgression was higher in females, probably because survival rate of males in captivity is lower therefore new males are routinely transferred from the wild where introgression is lower.

The second paper is about huchen, an endangered salmonid that matures at 65-70 cm of length and is endemic to the Danube basin. Unlike the highly diverse brown trout, huchen has low genetic variability so even fish from distant locations are genetically very similar. Based on observed markers, samples from 6 countries can be placed into two clusters: Austria / Slovenia and Ukraine / Slovakia / Montenegro / Bosnia-Herzegovina.

There are several possible explanations for low diversity within the species: (1) a slow molecular clock - essentially slow evolution; (2) low historical effective population sizes - small number of "breeders" in the entire basin; (3) a speciation founder effect - all living huchens are descendants of a very small number of ancestral huchens; (4) more recent human-caused bottlenecks - caused by overfishing and habitat degradation.

ICSB

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 07:19:00 +0000

Anja and Aleš attended the 20th International Conference on Subterranean Biology (ICSB), from 29 August to 3 September, held in Postojna, Slovenia. Postojna cave was named "cradle of speleobiology" after the discovery of the first subterranean life (cave beetle Leptodirus hochenwartii Schmidt, 1832). Anja's contribution was a description of subterranean migration of imotska gaovica Delminichthys adspersus based on genetic evidence.

The conference was very interesting and excellently organized, it was really exciting to be a part of the underground scientific community for a while.

Introducing Nate

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:50:00 +0000

Nate Cathcart is a student from the Colorado State University taking a semester off to learn methods of fish population genetics before graduating in May 2011. During his five month stay in BTRG lab he will investigate origins of rainbow trout populations in Slovenia using historical and genetic data. Besides studying fish and growing his mullet, he enjoys ice-fishing and fly-fishing.

Morocco 2010

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:52:00 +0000

In June we organized another field trip to Morocco. Although without our Moroccan colleagues, we did it in a frame of common project initiated in 2006. The main idea was to sample fish in the area of Tangier which appeared to be, as suggested by our preliminary results, a crucial location for untangling colonization patterns of trout in North Africa. In order to assure success the old team was joined by Gašper (our Crocodile hunter). Massive excavation works taking place all over the potentially interesting sampling sites along with our unfamiliarity with the area were probably responsible for complete failure. Some pictures of more successful part of this trip are presented below, all pictures were taken by Johannes Schöffmann.

Integrating ecology and evolution in diversity research (Workshop)

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:09:00 +0000

In May Gašper attended workshop about ecology end evolution which was held in Konnevesi Research Station in Finland, organized by Centre of Excellence in Evolutionary Research, Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, and was funded by the EU Marie Curie Initial Training Network Speciation.

Particular focus was on the genetics of adaptation and on using phylogenetic methods for studying divergence and diversification. The lectures, computer-based problem solving and a workshop on complementary skills were held by Rodolfo Costa (University of Padova), David Doležel (Biology Centre ASCR), Lacey Knowles (University of Michigan), Albert Phillimore (Imperial College London), and Johanna Mappes (University of Jyväskylä).

The knowledge of phylogenetic methods will help Gašper to resolve the origin of marble trout.

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.

-Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations, 1776)

PAG Conference XVIII in San Diego

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:48:00 +0000

In January, 2010, Urška and Aleš attended Plant and Animal Genome Conference XVIII in San Diego, California, where they presented a poster entitled “SEARCHING FOR CANDIDATE GENES RESPONSIBLE FOR SKIN COLOURATION IN Salmo sp. USING MICROARRAYS”.

Aleš has been haunted ever since by next generation sequencing and thinking about what is better: first ask questions and then do the sequencing or vice versa?

After the conference, they stayed a couple of days in San Diego enjoying ocean scene, Hillcrest and the Zoo. Urška was afraid of Mexican gang fights (and food) so they just skipped Baja California and resumed the journey to Death Valley and Las Vegas. What an alternative. Picture gallery available here.

Dentex paper

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Thu, 27 May 2010 07:29:00 +0000

Dentex paper was published. Finnaly. The results were mentioned before, samples from Montenegro were included in the final version.

Neretva and Skadar basins are inhabited by a complex mixture of salmonids of different appearances and sometimes of similar appearances and different genetic characteristics, which is why we are working on them in the first place. Results are often difficult to publish because of "small sample size" or because the studied taxa are "only of local significance". Dentex paper was one of the most difficult papers so far, because Aleš wanted to put it into a journal where we have no previous publications and because we did submit it to journals where our chances were statistically insignificant. Here is the list of attempted paper submittions:

Freshwater Biology
6 Apr 2009
I regret that the advice I have received is that your paper is of insufficient general interest for Freshwater Biology and that it should be submitted to a more specialised fish journal.
Nature
30 Apr 2009
...after consideration, we are not persuaded that your findings represent a sufficiently outstanding scientific advance to justify publication in Nature.
Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
11 Jun 2009
The Journal has a large backlog of high quality papers awaiting publication and because of this I am forced to adopt a stringent editorial policy. As a result I can accept only papers that are strongly recommended by all referees.
Canadian Journal of Fisheries & Aquatic Sciences
24 Dec 2009
...given that it is somewhat specialised in its subject matter, we recommend that it would be better suited to a more specialised journal such as Molecular Ecology or Copeia.
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
5 Jan 2010
The ZJLS is dedicated to systematic, phylogenetic and evolutionary zoology, but the main emphasis of this paper is a population genetic study of a single taxon.
Hydrobiologia
4 May 2010
We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript, "Resolving taxonomic uncertainties using molecular systematics: Salmo dentex and the Balkan trout community", has been accepted for publication in Hydrobiologia

We will remember John's submittion in Nature as the rejection arrived in his mailbox in about half an hour. This is apparently called "the Nature rodeo". Hydrobiologia reviewers had about 90% of very relevant issues, but of course there was the standard "Reviewer #2: The English needs to be improved". The same happened even when we had 2 native English speakers as co-authors.

Ožbalt sampling

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Sun, 23 May 2010 09:06:00 +0000

Searching for genetically pure populations of brown trout in Slovenia is still going on. This time we went to the Drava valley close to the hydroelectric power plant Ožbalt. Mr. Grace, the fish-warden of the Fishery Association Radlje ob Dravi, led us to the tributaries Kapusov potok and Suha. We were sampling above very impressive dams, and both streams have been unmanaged at least since 1980 according to Mr. Grace. Sounds promising.

In other news

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:25:00 +0000

Dentex paper was accepted after several failed attempts, we will all remember the Nature roller coaster experience. More details about this paper in the near future, the title is "Resolving taxonomic uncertainties using molecular systematics: Salmo dentex and the Balkan trout community", authors are Aleš Snoj, Branko Glamuzina, Andrej Razpet, John Zablocki, Ivan Bogut, Estelle Lerceteau-Köhler, Naris Pojskić and Simona Sušnik.

National Geographic paper (in Slovenian) is now available.

After spending the last few years working with students, Karst shepherds, Carniolan honey bees and cattle, Andrej has started with his basic postdoc project Immune response and behaviour of domesticated and wild brown trout financed by the Slovenian Research Agency for the next 2 years.

Looking for a new PhD student

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:30:00 +0000

Aleš is looking for a new PhD student, who will move away from fish and work on genetics of date mussels (Lithophaga lithophaga). More details are available on our site in english and slovenian.

Intermediate report

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 08:52:00 +0000

As mentioned before, BTRG and Fisheries Research Institute of Slovenia have started systematic screening of brown trout populations across Slovenia in order to assess the extent of “foreign blood” in native brown trout, to locate genetically pure populations and to promote an action plan for rehabilitation and preservation of native brown trout stocks.

An intermediate report was just published in the Ribič journal (in Slovenian). Essentially, members of local fishing societies and Fisheries Research Institute of Slovenia provided fin clip samples for our group, Gašper participated in several sampling expeditions and Klavdija did most of the work in the laboratory. 1070 samples from 44 locations were analysed, 4 putatively genetically pure populations of brown trout were found, 40 populations show various degrees of hybridization with domesticated strain of brown trout (Atlantic lineage).

The search for more genetically pure populations that could be used for restoration of native brown trout in hybridized populations continues.

National Geographic

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:15:00 +0000

Cooperation with Arne has produced a paper in Slovenian edition of National Geographic about marble trout from Slovenia and Softmouth trout from Herzegovina (The River Vrljika). We have the permission to put the paper on our site at the end of April, but until then only abstract is available (in Slovenian).

ARKive

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:40:00 +0000

ARKive is an organization that is "Promoting the Conservation of the World's Threatened Species, Through the Power of Wildlife Imagery". They included our material in S. obtusirostris and S. ohridanus sections (with permission).

For undergraduate students

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:10:00 +0000

We have added two new thesis titles to the list (Slovenian version here). All undergraduate students interested should contact Aleš.

New thesis titles are:

The origins of Slovenian populations of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
Rainbow trout is not native to Slovenia, but after extensive stocking some self-sustaining viable populations were formed. Students are expected to collect samples from these populations, isolate DNA from fin clips and perform genotypization over a number of highly polymorphic microsatellite loci. Results will be compared to population studies of North-American studies to identify parental population(s).
Tolerance of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) embryos to Pseudomonas fluorescens
P. fluorescens is opportunistic fish pathogen and is not a health risk to people and animals, but it does increase mortality of fish embryos. Experiment is run in parallels with different exposures to P. fluorescens against control (no infection). All phases of embryo development are examined with a microscope, the entire experiment is performed on freshly fertilised fish eggs in our laboratory.

Introducing Nejc

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:30:00 +0000

Named Nejc after Neal Armstrong, the greatest man who walked the faces of Earth and Moon (not at the same time). Currently finishing Biology at Universitas Labacensis. In a year and a half I will be on the job market, so anybody interested in me can send an e-mail to bravnicar.nejc@gmail.com

Important information about me: if I was a Transformer, I would be a yellow VW T3 van (Transporter Transformer) with cool Cottus gobio stickers on the hood. C. gobio is a super cool benthic fish and the subject of my graduation thesis. I will try to determine phylogenetic relations between different populations of probably two different species of the Cottus genus. Aleš Snoj is my mentor, I know you are all familiar with his work and describing him would just make me look like an ass kisser. And same goes to all members of BTRG, especially my working chief Anja. Glad to be on baord.

Opening of the Krušnica fish hatchery

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:54:00 +0000

Nedžad Ajanović of the FAO contacted BTRG two weeks ago and invited us to the opening of the Krušnica fish hatchery (initial description of the project). The project is founded by the Kingdom of Norway, represented at the opening by ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Jan Braathu.

Saša and Andrej represented our group, another geneticist - Belma Kalamujić came from the Institute for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (INGEB), Sarajevo. We have all done a lot of work in population genetics of salmonid fish in the area and we used the opportunity to discuss our paper in the making, see the state-of-the-art hatchery and meet representatives of the local fishermen association. We hope that our visit will result in new research projects.

Visiting Johannes

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:03:00 +0000

Saša, who is staying in Slovenia at the moment, Aleš and his wife Nada visited Johannes Schöffmann and his wife Ida in St. Veit, Austria. We admired Johannes’s rich collection of stuffed salmonids exposed across the living-room wall and enjoyed a lunch prepared by Ida. In the evening, we tasted delicious cakes from Franz Schöffmann Bäckerei und Konditorei, made by Johannes himself.

Inspired by beer and wine, we were discussing Moroccan trout and planning future projects and field trips…Algeria seems to be the next tempting destination.

Unfortunately, most of the taken pictures were accidently deleted from the camera.

Gödöllő

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Last week, Dušan, Zoran and Aleš spent four pleasant days in Hungary visiting Dr. Ákos Horváth and his team working at the Department of Aquaculture, Szent István University in Gödöllő. The visit was made in a frame of Slovene-Hungarian bilateral project "Cryopreservation of sperm and establishment of a cryobank of the Adriatic grayling (Thymallus thymallus) from the Soča river".

Besides doing some cryo-lab work, we also took this opportunity to sample three locations in Bükki Nemzeti Park, supposedly inhabited by native brown trout populations (genetic testing underway). We also visited Lillafüred trout breeding farm close to Miskolc run by Mr. György Hoitsy. Here we ate an excellent cat-fish goulash with baked pasta and white cheese cooked by his wife.

On the last day of our visit, the Hungarian colleagues along with Dr. Zoran Spirkovski from Hydro Biological Institute (Ohrid, Macedonia) presented their initiative for organizing the 2nd Conference for Conservation & Management of Balkan Freshwater Fishes (COMBAFF), which should be held in September 2010 in Hungary. Aleš was invited to participate in scientific committee... OK, he couldn't say no.

Annual testing of marble trout from zone of hybridization

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:26:00 +0000

Just like last year and a year before that, we performed genetic testing of fish from the zone of hybridization. This year we have received fin clips from 43 individually tagged trout from lower Trebuščica (the upper is home to one of 8 genetically pure populations of marble trout). These samples were checked for non native genetic characteristic on 5 nuclear genetic markers (each genetic marker in 2 copies, one allele inherited from each parent) and on 1 mitochondrial genetic marker (in 1 copy, inherited from the mother only). Out of 43 samples, 13 show signs of hybridization with non native trout, 4 sample will not be used because of low quality of DNA isolate (not included in the table). Eggs and sperm will be taken from 26 trout with no detectable brown trout genetic characteristics, fertilised and raised in the hatchery, released back in the zone of hybridization. DNA isolation and genotyping was carried out by Gašper.

Below is a simplified table of genotypes. These genotypes are not publishable, since the initial sampling was biased, only marble trout (by general appearance) were sampled, so the actual percentage of non native alleles in sampled locations might differ from our results (8.2% for nuclear markers, 2.6% for mtDNA marker).

Table of genotypes across 1 mitochondrial and 5 nuclear markers. Samples with non native (=brown trout alleles) are marked red and will not be used in restoration program. M - marble trout specific allele, B - brown trout specific allele.

LIFFe 2009

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:22:00 +0000

LIFFe stands for Ljubljana International Film Festival. To be honest, most people still refer to the festival as LIFF (especially those who are aware of the meaning of liff). As mentioned last year, BTRG selects a movie with a fish related title. There were 5 movies to choose from this year, last year's winner was Encounters at the End of the World, this year it was Fish Tank. There is hardly a place for fish in an English social drama, but several things were unexpectedly connected to our work. For instance, there actually was a fishing scene and a memorable "fish are stupid" quote. The main actor was Michael Fassbender, who also played in Inglourious Basterds, last movie we saw as a part of team building. And of course, the main music theme was Bobby Womack's version of California dreamin', a very appropriate song just 2 months before Urška and Aleš will represent BTRG at the Plant and genome conference on a winter's day in the same state.
Anyway, Tamara, Urška and Andrej attended this year's LIFFe event, along with Daliborka and her team as special guest stars. Anja and Aleš were absent at the last minute notice due to emergency sampling expedition. In the boss's absence there was enough time for conversation and some gossiping after the movie (until the waitress kicked us out).

Second trip to Morocco (August 2009)

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 08:29:00 +0000

First trip to Morocco was last year (here & here). During the second field trip two more sampling sites were added, a few more locations checked were troutless. Participants were Aleš, Saša, Johnnes & daughter. For more pictures click here.

ADDED: Just received a note from Aleš. This trip was actually the third expedition to Morocco. The first was already in June 2006, predating this blog. The participants at that time were Johannes with his daughter, Aleš with his wife and Said of the University Cadi Ayyad.

Softmouth trout from Vrljika

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:59:00 +0000

Several field trips and a lot of work was done near Imotski in Croatia. Softmouth trout was perhaps the most interesting fish from that area. Aleš has published a paper in Športski ribolov (Sport Fishing), presenting genetic results to the wider public. Special thanks to Daliborka Dušanić for translation to Croatian.

Another myth busted?

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:56:00 +0000

In the past year, BTRG has performed a comprehensive genetic analysis of dentex trout from the River Neretva. This time we applied an extended set of molecular markers and included for comparison several specimens of "real glavatica" (i.e., marmorated trout from the Neretva), which were badly missing in our preliminary study.

Contrary to our previous hypothesis, dentex trout turned out as genetically indistinct from marmorated trout of the Neretva. We assume that a phenotype characteristic of dentex trout had probably evolved as a consequence of specific local adaptation.

For more information, see the summary of already submitted manuscript below.

The dentex samples were provided by prof. Branko Glamuzina (University of Dubrovnik) and prof. Ivan Bogut (University of Osijek), and the "glavatica" samples by Naris Pojskić (Institute for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology).

Summary

The Balkan Peninsula is home to the most diverse collection of salmonids in the world. Nevertheless, many taxonomic uncertainties remain unresolved despite over a century of studies. Conservation of Balkan salmonid biodiversity hinges in large part upon addressing such uncertainties and is therefore of paramount importance. A notable example is found in the enigmatic Salmo dentex, which has been described by various authors in discontinuous populations ranging from the Aoos river in Greece to the Krka river drainage in Croatia. Current reports suggest it has disappeared from much of its previous range. At present, several contradictory opinions predominate on the taxonomic status of S. dentex without any broad consensus. To help resolve this issue we performed a rigorous molecular genetic analysis using a robust array of mtDNA, microsatellite, and nuclear gene markers of so-called S. dentex of the lower Neretva river drainage alongside other co-inhabiting endemic salmonids (i.e. S. obtusirostris, S. marmoratus, S. trutta). Our results clearly showed three genetically distinct lineages of salmonids with S. dentex being phenotypically distinct yet genetically indistinct from S. marmoratus of the lower Neretva. Based on our results and previous molecular results on Montenegrin dentex, it is clear that S. dentex is not a monophyletic lineage and should not be considered a distinct species on a genetic basis. We hypothesize S. dentex to most likely be polyphyletic assemblage of fish sharing a similar life history and unified phenotype evolved as a consequence of specific local adaptation.

Introducing Klavdija

noreply@blogger.com ("Ne da se mi", "Ko mi bo čas dopuščal") — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:22:00 +0000

Klavdija Bogataj is an undergraduate student of animal science and is currently preparing her graduation thesis "Genetic analysis of autochthonous brown trout (Salmo trutta) in Slovenija and identification of genetically pure populations" (working title).

Her practical working experience as a part of animal science curriculum at the Angling Club of Tržič was followed by sampling expedition with the Fisheries Research Institute of Slovenia. After realising that sampled fish are studied by Aleš Snoj she asked him for a graduation thesis mentorship. At the end, Simona Sušnik became her mentor. Klavdija started to work in the laboratory in October 2008 both for her thesis and the autochthonous brown trout project. As the later is done under a scheme similar to summer work she will probably be one of the few people actually working in the lab during the summer.