60 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service 
NOAA 
Fishery Bulletin 
Hr established in 1881 •&. 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U S Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Distinction of saffron cod {Eleginus gracilis) from 
several other gadid species by using microsatellite 
markers 
Email address for contact author: a.gharrett@alaska.edu 
Abstract —Nine microsatellite loci 
isolated in saffron cod (Eleginus 
gracilis ) have potential applications 
for population genetics. Polymerase 
chain reaction products of samples 
of E. gracilis from northwestern 
Alaska amplified reliably, produced 
only one or two microsatellite bands, 
and had no apparent homozygote 
excess. A collection of E. gracilis 
sampled in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) 
near Kodiak Island did not amplify 
reliably at one locus, and allele fre¬ 
quency profiles clustered distinctly 
(with principal component analysis 
[PCA]) from the northwestern Alas¬ 
ka collection. Northwestern Alaska 
and GOA E. gracilis collections were 
genetically different (on the basis 
of a standardized genetic differen¬ 
tiation measure [G' ST ]=0.313, chord 
distance [Z) chord ]=0.078, P<0.0001) 
and differed in expected aver¬ 
age heterozygosities at shared loci 
(0.859 and 0.689, respectively). We 
tested the microsatellite primers on 
other gadid species endemic to the 
northern Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, 
and Arctic Ocean for cross-species 
amplification. Not all loci amplified 
reliably in navaga (E. nawaga), Pa¬ 
cific tomcod ( Microgadus proximus), 
Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida), Pa¬ 
cific cod ( Gadus macrocephalus), or 
walleye pollock (G. chalcogrammus). 
Reliable loci varied in microsatellite 
size profiles and produced distinct 
PCA clusters and accurate genotype 
assignments that allowed accurate 
species identification. The identifica¬ 
tions support previous morphological 
and genetically determined system¬ 
atic classifications and distinguished 
the geographically separated collec¬ 
tions of E. gracilis. 
Manuscript submitted 20 April 2017. 
Manuscript accepted 7 November 2017. 
Fish. Bull. 116:60-68 (2018) 
Online publication date: 13 December 2017. 
doi: 10.7755/FB. 116.1.6 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
Noel Sme 1 
Sarah Lyon 1 
Michael Canino 2 
Natalia Chernova 3 
Jason O'Bryhim 4 
Stacey Lance 4 
Kenneth Jones 5 
Franz Mueter 1 
Anthony Gharrett (contact author) 1 
1 Juneau Center 
College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences 
University of Alaska Fairbanks 
17101 Point Lena Loop Road 
Juneau, Alaska 99801 
2 Alaska Fisheries Science Center 
National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 
7600 Sand Point Way NE 
Seattle, Washington 98115 
3 Zoological Institute of the Russian 
Academy of Sciences 
Universitetskaja Naberezhnaya 1 
The saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis) is a 
gadid fish distributed from the north¬ 
ern Gulf of Alaska (GOA), around the 
Pacific Rim into the Sea of Okhotsk, 
and into the Arctic Ocean abutting 
the North Pacific Ocean (Cohen et 
al., 1990; Mecklenburg et al., 2016). 
Mature fish, which generally exceed 
20 cm in fork length (FL) and may 
grow to more than 50 cm FL, are 
eaten by indigenous Alaskans and in 
Asia and have potential for commer¬ 
cial harvest in North America (Cohen 
et al., 1990; NPFMC 1 ; Love et al. 2 ). 
1 NPFMC (North Pacific Fisheries Man¬ 
agement Council). 2009. Fishery 
management plan for fish resources 
of the Arctic management area, 76 p. 
NPFMC, Anchorage, AK. [Available 
from website.] 
2 Love, M. S., N. Elder, C. W. Mecklen- 
4 Savannah River Ecology Laboratory 
University of Georgia 
PO. Drawer E 
Aiken, South Carolina 29802 
5 Section of Hematology-Oncology 
Department of Pediatrics 
University of Colorado School of Medicine 
12800 East 19 th Ave, RC-1 North, Room 4129 
Aurora, Colorado 80045 
St. Petersburg, Russia 199034 
Saffron cod is also an important com¬ 
ponent of the Arctic ecosystem (Wo- 
lotira, 1985; Copeman et al., 2016; 
Love et al. 2 ) and is a significant prey 
item for several marine mammals 
(Bluhm and Gradinger, 2008). It is 
thought to compete for food with 
Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida ) and 
may have a competitive advantage 
as sea ice changes occur in response 
to climate change (Love et al. 2 ). The 
species, especially in North Ameri- 
burg, L. K. Thorsteinson, and T. A. 
Mecklenburg. 2016. Alaska Arctic 
marine fish species accounts: saffron cod 
(Eleginus gracilis). In Alaska Arctic 
marine fish ecology catalog. U.S. Geolog¬ 
ical Survey Sci. Invest. Rep. 2016-5038 
(OCS Study, BOEM 2016-048) (L. K. 
Thorsteinson and M. S. Love, eds.), p. 
201-208. [Available from website.] 
