ZP3 Gene Holds Secrets to Future of Pacific Cod Stocks
Pacific cod—already weathering climate change in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, far from their ancestral home—face new challenges due to global warming, with the answers to their ability to adapt perhaps centered on the impact of the ZP3 protein in their genome.
NOAA Fisheries scientists in Seattle are researching a specific gene region of the genome called zona pellucida, or ZP3, to assess its role in geographic variation among Alaska’s Pacific cod stocks. The fishery comprises the second largest commercial groundfish harvest off Alaska, a multi-million dollar business that provides hundreds of jobs in the hook-and-line, bottom trawl, jig, pot and longline catch- and-processing facilities.
According to NOAA Fisheries, the 2019 commercial harvest alone of Pacific cod totaled about ...