The genetic diversity of central and peripheral populations of ratlike hamster (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cricetulus triton</Emphasis>)

The impact of habitat fragmentation and isolation on the genetic diversity of populations has attracted much attention in studies of meta-population and conservation biology. In this work, using the randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique, we studied the genetic diversity of central, peripheral and peninsular populations of ratlike hamster, which were collected in five locations of the North China Plain and its surrounding areas, in 1999. The study revealed that, i) the genetic diversity of central population of Raoyang County>the sub-central populations of Gu’an County and Taikang County > the peripheral population of Shunyi District>the peninsular population of Mentougou District; ii) the genetic diversities of the five populations were positively correlated to the nearest distances to the peripheral line of population distribution; iii) there were significant differences of gene frequencies of some RAPD fragments among the five populations. More RAPD fragments disappeared in peripheral populations than in central or sub-central populations. The frequencies of two RAPD fragments were correlated to the latitude. This study clearly indicated that the variation of the genetic diversities of the five populations was caused by edge effect and fragmentation through the enhanced inbreeding and genetic drift, and thus supported the view that habitat fragmentation and related edge effect reduce the population genetic diversity.