Abstract: 【Aims】 The genetic diversity and genetic differentiation of six populations of Apis cerana cerana distributed in different geographic areas in East China were surveyed using 23 microsatellite markers. 【Methods】 Using polymorphism information content (PIC), mean heterozygosity (H), number of effective alleles, genetic distances, gene flow (Nm) and F-statistics, we evaluated the genetic diversity and genetic differentiation. 【Results】 The number of alleles per locus ranged from 5（A014） to 30（AP043）. All populations showed high-level heterozygosity, the lowest was Wuyishan population (0.4280) and the highest was Nanchang population (0.6329). Significant genetic differentiation was found among the six populations (P<0.01) and the average genetic differentiation coefficient of all the populations was 0.344. Neighbour-joining dendrogrm was constructed based on the Nei’s genetic distance, and three main clusters were found. 【Conclusions】 The genetic diversity and the genetic differentiation of the six populations of A. cerana cerana were significant. Through analyzing the correlation between genetic differentiation and geographical distance, we found that genetic differentiation among the six populations of A. cerana cerana was not be significantly related to geographical distance.

Key words: Apis cerana cerana, genetic diversity, genetic differentiation, microsatellite marker