Sex-biased dispersal of greater long-tailed hamster (Tscherskia triton) revealed by microsatellites

For 2 consecutive years we studied the effect of dispersal on the genetic diversity of greater long-tailed hamsters (Tscherskia triton (de Winton, 1899)) in farmland habitat, Hebei Province, People's Republic of China. Level of genetic diversity was estimated by analyzing six highly polymorphic microsatellite loci in terms of mean d(2), allele number, allelic diversity, effective number of alleles, allelic richness, average observed heterozygosity, and expected heterozygosity. The genetic diversity in populations from both two sites and 2 years indicated that the males contained higher levels of genetic diversity than the females, which supported our prediction that male-biased dispersal increased population genetic diversity. We also found significant departures from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and a reduction in genetic diversity in samples from a partially isolated site, which was probably due to genetic drift, inbreeding, or a combination of these factors.