Leveraging omics for bull trout conservation

Declines in bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) populations across North America have prompted increased collaboration among academic, governmental, private, non-profit, and Indigenous groups to improve conservation strategies. Bull trout experience multiple stressors including habitat fragmentation, interspecific competition, fishing mortality, and climate change-induced warming. These threats to bull trout populations highlight the need to utilize approaches to rapidly assess the health and status of wild populations. This review synthesizes recent advances in omic tools applied to bull trout conservation with an emphasis on transcriptional profiling, genomics, and environmental DNA. Given their protected status, which limits lethal sampling in the wild, non-lethal and minimally invasive sample collection is required. Integrating omics with existing frameworks such as species distribution modelling has the potential to modernize conservation practices and guide recovery strategies for this at-risk species. Addressing limitations of current omic approaches for bull trout, including the absence of a sequenced genome, will be important to further advance tools for their management.