In order to manage and exploit the loach genetic resources of China,six microsatellites were used to describe the genetic diversity of 7 Chinese loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus) populations inhabiting Anhui (AH),Gansu (GS),Guangdong (GD) Guangxi (GX),Heilongjiang (HLJ) and Jiangsu (JS) Provinces and Chongqing (CQ) City,respectively.The 6 polymorphic microsatellites were selected from the microsatellite linkage map of loach,being not linked with each other.They were also found to be in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in HLJ population,a less disturbed population,thus being suitable for diversity determination.The 6 microsatellites revealed the polymorphism information content (PIC) ranging from 0.643 to 0.796 among populations.In total,69 alleles were identified,and the number of alleles (N_a) varied between 7 and 16,and the effective alleles (N_e) varied between 3.0 and 5.5.The observed heterozygosity (H_o) among populations ranged from 0.202 to 0.408 while the expected heterozygosity (H_e) ranged from 0.673 to 0.820.These findings indicated that 7 populations were rich in genetic diversity.The co-efficiency of gene differentiation among populations (F_st) was 0.499,illustrating that 49.9% of the total variation can be explained by the differentiation among populations.The F_is ranged from 0.167 to 0.421,indicating that serious inbreeding and further uneven distribution exist within populations.The cluster analysis showed that AH,GD,HLJ and JS populations merged into a clade while CQ,GS and GX fused into the other,indicating that the diversity of Chinese loach may have west-east differentiated and may have been north-south disturbed.