Wednesday September 30, 2026
LSSU—
Determining the sex of a sturgeon can be surprisingly difficult. A team of LSSU researchers has refined a genetic testing method that makes the process more reliable, offering a useful tool for fisheries research, conservation, and aquaculture.
The research, led by LSSU Professor Britton Ranson Olson, was conducted in collaboration with LSSU Professor and Assistant Director of Research at the Center for Freshwater Research and Education (CFRE), Kevin Kapuscinski, and LSSU Master’s candidate Alana J. Miller-Schofield.
Their findings were published Sept. 3 in BioTechniques.
For researchers studying sturgeon populations, knowing the sex of individual fish can provide important information about population characteristics and reproductive dynamics. However, determining their sex can be challenging, particularly outside of the spawning season or in younger fish.
Previous genetic methods have relied on a marker found specifically in females. When that marker was absent, a fish could be classified as male, but the test did not include a way to confirm that the sample and test itself were working properly.