Daigle N J, White S, Lubinski B A, Johnson R, Kazyak D C, Verhille C E, Gillis C A, Sacobie C F D
Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada.
Eastern Ecological Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Kearneysville, WV, USA.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 1;15(1):20654. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-04551-x.
The Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus) is an important species in eastern North America due to its conservation status and cultural significance. Local Mi'gmaw fishers have reported an increase in sturgeon sightings over the last decade in the Restigouche River and estuary. Mi'gmaw Knowledge, oral history, and archaeological finds attest to their historical presence in the region; however, the river is not a documented habitat for Atlantic sturgeon in Western literature. Based on community interest and concern, the Gespe'gewa'gi Institute of Natural Understanding co-developed a Two-Eyed Seeing collaboration to learn more about these sturgeon. Here, we investigate their genetic origin via microsatellite analyses and hypothesized that they would originate from the closest spawning habitat, the St. Lawrence River. We found that, overall, the largest contributor to our Atlantic sturgeon sampled from the Restigouche River system was the St. Lawrence River (85.7% of samples), followed by the Wolastoq (3.6%), then a mixture of the St. Lawrence, the Wolastoq, the Kennebec, and/or the Hudson River populations (10.7%). Improving our understanding of the distribution of Atlantic sturgeon through microsatellite analyses and leveraging range-wide genetic baselines directly assesses the genetic origin of unknown stock compositions and can support the future co-management of the species.
大西洋鲟（Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus）因其保护地位和文化意义，在北美东部是一个重要物种。当地米克马克族渔民报告称，在过去十年里，里士蒂古什河和河口的鲟鱼目击数量有所增加。米克马克族的知识、口述历史和考古发现证明了它们在该地区的历史存在；然而，在西方文献中，这条河并不是大西洋鲟的记录栖息地。基于社区的兴趣和关注，自然理解的格斯佩格瓦吉研究所共同开展了一项“双眼洞察”合作项目，以更多地了解这些鲟鱼。在此，我们通过微卫星分析研究它们的基因起源，并假设它们起源于最近的产卵栖息地圣劳伦斯河。我们发现，总体而言，从里士蒂古什河水系采集的大西洋鲟样本中，最大的基因贡献来自圣劳伦斯河（85.7%的样本），其次是沃拉斯托科河（3.6%），然后是圣劳伦斯河、沃拉斯托科河、肯纳贝克河和/或哈得逊河种群的混合基因（10.7%）。通过微卫星分析提高我们对大西洋鲟分布的了解，并利用全范围的基因基线，可直接评估未知种群组成的基因起源，并有助于该物种未来的共同管理。
