Abstract: The genetic diversity and genetic differentiation were studied in three wild populations of sea cucumberApostichopusjaponicusfrom Dalian China (CD),Rajin North Korea (KN) and Vladivostok Russia(RV) by internal transcribed spacer 1(ITS1). Two different length of ITS1 sequence (517-519 bp and 524 bp) were obtained via cloning and sequencing of PCR products, with higher mean contents of G+C(64.5%) than those of A+T(35.5%). There were 49 variation sites from 61 sequences in the 3 populations, with polymorphic sites of 9.33%, and 4 parisimony informative among 40 genotypes including 2 shared genotypes. Genetic diversity parameters showed high genetic diversity among populations. The fixation indices (FST) of analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) within populations was found to be 88.65%,indicating that the three populations had weak or only moderately genetic differentiation. The molecular phylogenetic tree constructed with NJ method based on genetic distance revealed that there was closer linkage between KN population and RV population than between them and CD population.
2014, Vol. 29 
