Low among-population genetic differentiation in Chinese bisexual Artemia populations

We studied the population genetic structure of nine bisexual Artemia sinica populations from the provinces of Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Qinghai in Ch ina, using variation at nine allozyme loci (cellulose acetate electrophores is). There is a clear-cut tendency for an increase in genetic variation, as measured by heterozygosity, with increasing habitat size. Although we obse rve a positive relationship between genetic differentiation and geographica l distance, overall F-ST values are low: populations separated by approxima tely 1000 km show average F-ST values of 0.05-0.1, whereas populations sepa rated by 100 km show no genetic differentiation at all.