Laboratory Examination of Oil - Related Embryo Mortalities that Persist in Pink Salmon Populations in

We used an array of genetic detection methods to test the hypothesis that incubation of pink salmon embryos in an oiled substrate induces genetic damage. Mortality and abnormality rates were higher for embryos in oiled incubators than for those in unoiled incubators. Despite high statistical power, we found no relationship between exposure to oil and incidence of genetic damage detectable by flow cytometry. Androgens produced from males incubated in oil as embryos demonstrated no elevated mortality; however, this experiment lacked statistical power due to unanticipated male-to-male variability. We found unexpectedly little polymorphism and no differences in either cytochrome b or the region of tumor suppressor gene p53 reported to be hypervariable in other species. A pilot study of four microsatellite loci showed no change of allelic expression. However, a high frequency of K-rus mutations was observed in pink salmon embryos experimentally exposed to Exxon Vuldez crude oil.