Identification of interspecific hybrids by amplified fragment length polymorphism: the case of sturgeon

The identification of interspecific hybrids represents an important issue f or conservation biology and trade controls. In Italy, the commercial demand for sturgeon is rapidly increasing and interspecific hybrids represent a r elevant part of aquacultural production. In this study we tested the suitab ility of the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) technique for st urgeon hybrid detection. Multilocus AFLP profiles were analysed by cluster analysis and assignment tests based on observed and simulated samples. Our results show that this approach can easily identify sturgeon hybrids, encou raging its application not only in sturgeon but also in other systematic gr oups.