14th July 2014
2 hours ago by Tiffany L Trent
(Phys.org) —A little fish may once again be making a big splash, if Pawel Michalak, a researcher at Virginia Tech's Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, has anything to say about it.
In a paper featured on the cover of the Journal of Experimental Zoology, Michalak and a team of nationally recognized fishery scientists uncovered genetic factors contributing to the alewife's (Alosa pseudoharengus) ability to populate freshwater habitats.
The alewife in recent years made history when it invaded the Great Lakes, surmounting the natural barrier of Niagara Falls, and established a purely freshwater population. As if that weren't enough, the fish favored as bait by lobster fishermen quickly edged out native fish and began wreaking havoc with lake trout and other native fishes.
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