DNAbarcodingisapowerfulapproachforcharacterizingspeciesoforganisms,especiallythosewithalmostidenticalmorphologicalfeatures,therebyhelpingtotoestablishphylogeneticrelationshipsandrevealevolutionaryhistories.Inthisstudy,wechosea648-bpsegmentofthemitochondrialgene,cytochromecoxidasesubunit1(COI),asastandardbarcoderegiontoestablishphylogeneticrelation-shipsamongbrineshrimp(Artemia)speciesfrommajorhabitatsaroundtheworldandfurtherfocusedonthebiopersityofArtemiaspeciesinChina,especiallyintheTibetanPlateau.SamplesfromfivemajorsaltlakesoftheTibetanPlateaulocatedataltitudesover4,000mshowedcleardifferencesfromotherArtemiapop-ulationsinChina.Wealsoobservedtwoconsistentaminoacidchanges,153A/Vand183L/F,intheCOIgenebetweenthehighandlowaltitudespeciesinChina.Moreover,indelsintheCOIsequencewereidentifiedincystandadultsamplesuniquetotheCoQenpopulationfromtheTibetanPlateau,demonstratingtheneedforadditionalinvestigationsofthemitochondrialgenomeamongTibetanArtemiapopulations.
