Genetic analysis of 13 red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) populations from different regions of the Yangtze River basin in China were performed using 8 simple sequence repeats (SSR) makers. The allele number,herterozygosity,polymorphism information content (PIC),Hardy einberg equilibrium index and genetic distance in the 13 populations were identified,respectively. The results showed that there were 3-5 alleles at each SSR marker locus in the population,the expected heterozygosity were 0.37-0.57,the observed heterozygosity were 0.23-0.48,and the PIC were 0.40-0.56,respectively,suggesting a higher genetic diversity among the investigated populations. In addition,3 groups were classified by a neighborjoining method based on the genetic distance among the populations. Taihu (TH) and Poyanghu (PYH) populations represented the first group,Chongqing (CQ) and Chaohu (CH) populations represented the second group and Honghu (HH),and Dongtinghu (DTH) and Hongzehu (HZH) populations represented the third group. These results indicate that China has a red swamp crayfish resource of high genetic diversity.