FISHERIES RESEARCH INSTITUTE,MOA,TAIWAN

Cultured small abalone, (Haliotis diversicolor, collected from five farms strains (two【TC1 and TC2】from the county of Taitung and three【YC1, YC2 and YC3】 from the county of Yilan). Wild abalone were from the coast of Shueilian-Jichi (HW1) and Yanliao (HW2) of Hualian County. RAPD was then used to analysis genetic variation of seven strains. Six random primers (p3, p5, p7, p8, p9 and p12) were used to amplify 61 clear and reproducible bands. The results showed that observed number of alleles (na), effective number of alleles (ne), gene diversity (h), Shannon’s Information Index (I), the number of polymorphic loci (nL), and the percentage of polymorphic loci (pL) of farmed strains except YC3 were 1.8033±0.4008 ~ 1.8852±0.3214, 1.5023 ± 0.3524 ~ 1.6469 ± 0.3423, 0.2927 ± 0.1830 ~ 0.3599 ± 0.1638, 0.4360 ± 0.2522 ~ 0.5233 ± 0.2210, 49~54, and 80.33 ~ 88.52%, respectively. On the other hand, the na, ne, h, I, nL and pL of wild abalone were 1.8689 ± 0.3404 ~ 1.9508 ± 0.2180, 1.6677 ± 0.3456 ~ 1.7397 ± 0.2846, 0.3659 ± 0.1717 ~ 0.4048 ± 0.1298, 0.5268 ± 0.2356 ~ 0.5823 ± 0.1703, 53 ~ 58, and 86.89 ~ 95.08%, respectively. Based on the results and through the Unweighted Pair Group Method Analysis (UPGMA), these small abalone can be divided into three subgroups: Taitung, Haulian, and Yilan. Compared to farmed strains, the wild abalone from Haulian displayed a greater genetic variation, polymorphism, and number of alleles.