Genetic diversity and population structure of Rapana venosa along the coast of China

In the past decades,the natural resources of Rapana venosa in China have obviously declined because of over-exploitation and habitat destruction.It is very necessary to survey genetic diversity and population structure of R.venosa along the coast of China for the formulation of management policies and the protection of R.venosa resources.In the study,nine polymorphic microsatellite markers were used to evaluate the level of genetic diversity of nine wild R.venosa populations along the coast of China and estimate the degree of genetic differentiation among these populations.The analysis of genetic diversity showed that the mean allelic richness ranged from 8.6 to 9.5 and the expected heterozygosity (H_E) ranged from 0.705 to 0.777.The analysis of genetic differentiation showed that the F_ST values ranged from 0.012 2 to 0.093 6 and D_C values ranged from 0.212 to 0.349.It is suggested that the R.venosa possessed high genetic diversity and no clear differentiation was detected between the nine populations.