Objective: To explore the genetic diversity among populations of Oncomelania hupensis.
Methods: Simple sequence repeat-anchored PCR method was used to amplify the genomic DNA of nineteen snail populations from 8 provinces, and the genetic diversities among these snail populations were analyzed.
Results: The genetic distance D among nineteen snail populations ranged from 0 to 0.73 with average genetic distance as D 0.22 +/- 0.013. All the 19 snail populations were clustered into four groups: one group included 16 snail populations distributed throughout the Yangtze River drainage system below the Three Gorges of the river (Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, and Jiangsu provinces); Snail populations from Yizhou city, Guangxi province, Fuqing city from Fujian province, and Dali city from Yunnan province belonged to an independent group respectively.
Conclusion: The distribution of Oncomelania hupensis in mainland China could be divided into four subspecies, i.e. Oncomelania hupensis hupensis (O. h. hupensis ), O. h. robertsoni, O. h. tangi , and O. h. guangxiensis.