Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP)

Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis is a robust, multilocus PCR-based DNA fingerprinting technique that can provide the most efficient, reliable, and economical analysis of population genetics. AFLPs are nuclear DNA markers inherited in Mendelian fashion, in contrast to environmental markers and mitochondrial markers. As compared to other nuclear markers, such as RFLP and RAPD, AFLPs provide a much greater level of polymorphism and a much wider genomic coverage. AFLP probably is also superior to microsatellites for population genetic studies because of its ability to display hundreds of loci simultaneously. However, AFLP markers are inherited as dominant markers. Caution should be exercised for transfer of information across laboratories. The needs for special equipment such as sequencers may limit its wide application. These disadvantages can be compensated for by the robustness of the multilocus AFLP analysis, which not only provides high levels of polymorphism, but also provides a great level of band sharing required to establish relatedness among populations. Most importantly, AFLP (and also RAPD) analysis does not require any previous knowledge and thus is suitable to population genetic analysis of any species. Because of these advantages, the application of AFLP in fish population genetic studies is increasing. In time, its wide application in the studies of fish population genetics is inevitable.