Analysis on Genetic Relationship of Oxya chinensis and Oxya japonica from Xuzhou and Pingshan, China

Genetic relationship among Oxya chinensis populations and Oxya japonica populations collected from Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province and Pingshan County, Hebei Province, China were analyzed by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. A total of 125 DNA bands ranging from 200 to 2200 bp were amplified by 10 random primers in DNA samples from 43 grasshopper individuals. One hundred and twenty-three (99%) of these bands were polymorphic. Shannon's index showed that the genetic diversity within O. chinensis (0.3432) was higher than that of O. japonica (0.2781). Nei's genetic distance between O. chinensis population and O. japonica population from the same area was less than that between populations from two different areas. The dendrogram based on Nei's genetic distance of RAPD markers was constructed using the unweighted pair group method with the arithmetic average (UPGMA) and Neighbor-Joining (NJ) methods. Cluster analysis indicated that all the individuals were grouped into two main clusters. O. chinensis populations from Xuzhou and Pingshan formed one cluster, and O. japonica populations from the two regions belonged to another cluster. The results demonstrated that RAPD can detect polymorphisms to distinguish minor difference among individuals within species, and among closely related species.