Microsatellite Variation in the Oyster Crassostreaplicatula Along the Coast of China

Genetic diversity and differentiation of the oyster Crassostreaplicatula populations from China's coast were studied basedon seven microsatellite loci.All loci showed high polymorphism for all five C.plicatula populations,with an average number of alleleper locus of 19.3-27.9 and an average expected heterozygosity of 0.889-0.952.Significant departures from Hardy-Weinberg equilib-rium and deficits of heterozygotes were observed over most populations at each locus,which were fully explained by null alleles.Microsatellite analysis revealed significant subdivision in the C.plicatula populations.According to the neighbor-joining tree con-structed on the basis of the D,A distance,the five populations fell into three regional groups,showing a relatively homogeneous geneticstructure in geographically close populations.Assignation tests correctly assigned high percentages of individuals to their originalpopulations and groups,and also confirmed the existence of genetic differentiation among C.plicatula populations.The results ob-tained in this study will facilitate the formulation of appropriate fisheries management programs,stock identification and conservationof biodiversity for the species.