Genetic Diversity And Differentiation Of Geographical Populations Of Plateau Pika

The plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae), whose distribution largely coincides with the high alpine grassland of the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) plateau of People's Republic of China, is one of the dominant small mammals in the alpine meadow ecosystem. The six geographical populations of the plateau pikas (Haiyan population, XidatanAE population, XidatanAW population, XidatanBE population, XidatanBW population and Kunlun population) were selected in four sites, their genetic diversity and variation were assessed with the microsatellite markers of North-American pika (Ochotona princeps) and the effects of geographical distance, altitude and road on genetic and morphological variation among populations were discussed. The results are as follows:The variations of the body weight, body length, ear length and hind foot length of the plateau pika among populations reached a remarkably significant level (p<0.01). All of these morphological characters of Haiyan population were significantly different from those of the other five populations (p<0.05). Between populations of XidatanAE and XidatanAW, there was no significant variance in all characters (p>0.05). The same results appeared between populations of XidatanBE and XidatanBW. Furthermore, the variation of the body length, ear length and hind foot length were not significant between populations of Kunlun and XidatanBW (p>0.05). Between Kunlun and XidatanBE population, there was no significant variance in body length and ear length (p>0.05). The ranking of the variation coefficients (CV) of all morphological characters was the body weight> the ear length> the body length> the hind foot length. And the ranking of the CV value of all populations was Haiyan population> Kunlun population> XidatanAE population> XidatanAW population> XidatanBE population> XidatanBW population.We analyzed the genetic diversity of the plateau pika. The number of alleles and...