Abstract

Findings regarding sex‐linked markers and the sex determining gene have important implications in salmonid production, where all‐female stocks are preferable. Producing a monosex female population increases commercial yield, and avoids many of the problems associated with precocious maturation of males. We review the most relevant molecular markers and techniques developed for the Salmonidae family (focusing on the sub‐family Salmoninae), from the first biochemical loci and application of PCR‐based markers, through the discovery the sdY gene and the newest genotyping methods. Molecular markers are not routinely applied in salmon production and, when they are used, the results are often kept as trade secrets. Using the published data and diagnostic statistics available, we evaluate the performance of several sex markers. For Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, and brown trout, assays based on the sdY gene seem to perform better in sexing applications than other assays. In Chinook salmon, the OtY3 marker shows the best performance. For coho, masu and sockeye salmon, only one marker (GH‐2, GH‐Ψ and OtY2‐WSU, respectively) has enough data to analyze, but these limited results are promising, suggesting excellent performance.