AFLP fingerprinting as a tool to study the genetic diversity of Rhizobium galegae isolated from Galega orientalis and Galega officinalis

AFLP fingerprints of Rhizobium galegae strains that infect Galega orientali s and Galega officinalis obtained from different geographical sources, and of taxonomically diverse rhizobia representing the recognized species, were generated. Comparisons of the fingerprints from fluorescent labeled AFLP p roducts using capillary electrophoresis on ABI prism 310, slab gel electrop horesis on ABI prism 377 genetic analyzers and silver staining were in good agreement. All methods delineated the G. orientalis strains from G. offici nalis strains, the G. orientalis strains formed a tight cluster whereas the G. officinalis strains seem to show a greater level of genetic diversity. Comparison of fluorescent AFLP with other detection methods revealed that f luorescent labeling is more sensitive and practical, in addition, the delet erious effect of radioactivity associated with 32P-labeling, the delicate p rocess of blotting polyacrylamide gels or the tedious procedure of silver s taining can be avoided. The automated system facilitated a large number of runs at a time and the subsequent analysis of the data by generating export able raw data. The congruency of the experiments was analyzed using the Bio numerics software. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.