Molecular Markers

AFLP Markers

The development of AFLP markers for the identification of crop varieties is a fast and cheap method because it only needs small amounts of genomic DNA and does not require pre-existing DNA sequence information. AFLPs are developed in several steps. First genomic DNA of the plant in question is isolated according to the CTAB-method. The DNA is then digested with the restriction enzymes EcoRI and MseI and ligated to adapters. In a next step fragments are selectively PCR amplified. These fragments yield a (variety-)specific pattern when electrophoresed into a polyacrylamide gel and silver stained. The patterns are evaluated with commercially available software programs. The patterns can be transformed into dendrograms using a mathematical algorithm (WPGAMA). These dendrograms enable to determine the percentage of similarity between samples. Osteospermum hybrids are morphologically very similar before they start to flower, meaning that, very often the identification of a variety according to phenotypical traits is difficult before the onset of flowers. We have therefore developed AFLP markers for the identification of Osteospermum hybrids.

Moreover we are generating AFLP markers to differentiate different crop varieties including Geranium, cherry rootstocks, plum and bamboo.


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