Properties of AFLP markers in inheritance and genetic diversity studies ofPinus sylvestris L.

We analysed the properties of AFLP markers in Pinus sylvestris. Using prime rs with three selective nucleotides, the AFLP protocol produced large numbe rs of amplified bands and could only be used with a restricted number of pr imer combinations. Replacement of the EcoRI + 3 primer by an EcoRI + 4 prim er halved the number of bands, facilitating analysis. The inheritance of al l but about 8.4% of the amplified bands has been confirmed to be Mendelian. We compared band patterns among selected P. sylvestris trees from northern Sweden, two Asian species of Pinus and one species from the genus Picea. T he dendrogram obtained was generally concordant with the taxonomic data, al though the genetic similarity values between trees from different genera di d not entirely follow accepted inter- and intraspecific relationships. This deviation was less pronounced using primer combinations that generated few er bands. More than 69.1% of the bands that were polymorphic in two P. sylv estris trees or 29 of their F-1 progeny were in a pseudo-testcross configur ation and thus were useful for the development of a linkage map for each pa rent. These markers have been analysed in four other crosses, and 83% of th e bands could be mapped in at least one cross. Depending on the level of he terozygosity of the parents, the efficiency of such mapping will vary, but the AFLP technique appears to be a powerful way to generate, very quickly, large numbers of markers that are useful for constructing and comparing lin kage maps.