Genetic Diversity of Rice Field Eel (Monopterus albus) in China Based on RAPD Analysis

Abstract

The genetic diversity of seven populations of Monopterus albus from China, i.e., Yancheng, Mianyang, Baoding, Suqian, Anshun, Shaoyang and Nanning, was studied based on RAPD analysis. Thirteen of 50 arbitrate primers were screened to detect 122 polymorphic loci in 72 individuals. Shannon index, Nei’s gene diversity coefficient and percentage of polymorphic loci analysis consistently indicated that Mianyang and Yancheng populations displayed the largest diversity information, followed by Baoding, Suqian, Nanning, Anshun and Shaoyang in order. The genetic variations were found partitioned mainly within rather than among populations, as the latter accounted for only a small portion of variations (27.9％ by AMOVA). Genetic differentiation existed among all the populations (Gst = 0.1798), with a gene flow of 2.2813.The overall Shannon index and Nei’s gene diversity index was 0.4991 and 0.3302 respectively. Inferred from genetic distance, a phylogenetic dendrogram was also constructed by UPGMA method for the seven populations. Generally speaking, low genetic diversity was shown for all these populations of M. albus in China mainland.