Abstract: The genetic diversities of 12 local chicken breeds in Guizhou and an introduced one were determined by seven microsatellite DNA markers, and the allele frequencies, gene heterozygosity (H), mean gene heterozygosity, polymorphism information content (PIC), mean polymorphism information content and genetic relationships of these breeds were also analyzed in this paper. The results illustrated that alleles and their frequencies in 7 loci marked by microsatellite showed differences among the 13 chicken breeds. Of these chicken breeds, the mean loci heterozygosity in the Yaoshan chicken is higher than the other ones, and that of the White Plymouth Rocks is the lowest. The mean PIC also showed that the genetic diversity in the Yaoshan chicken is the highest among these breeds. According to the clustering analysis, the 13 chicken breeds belong to 2 groups: one is the White Plymouth Rocks, the other group includes the 12 Local chicken breeds in Guizhou. And the 12 Local chicken breeds in Guizhou form 2 smaller groups. One group is composed of the Xingyi Native chicken, the Short Footed chicken, the Qiandongnan Xiao Xiang chicken and the Qiandongnan Xiao Xiang Silky chicken, and the other comprises the Long Footed chicken, the Yaoshan chicken, the Weining chicken，the Zhuxiang chicken, the Zhuxiang Silky chicken, the Black Wumeng Silky chicken, the Wumeng chicken, the Barred Wumeng Silky chicken.

Key words: local chicken breed, microsatellite, genetic diversity