AFLP characterization of three argentine Coprotus species

AFLP methodology was applied to characterize three Coprotus species (C. lacteus, C. niveus, C. sexdecimsporus) so as to estimate the levels of polymorphism within species, to analyze the phenetic relationships among them, and to contrast the AFLP findings to those of a previous RAPD study. The high number of AFLP bands obtained with the six assayed primers allowed us to detect intra-specific variability. The genetic variability within species obtained using AFLP (measured in terms of percentage of polymorphic loci) was two to three times higher than those obtained by RAPD. The phenograms generated by AFLP markers grouped all strains of the same species into three defined clusters, and a higher association between C. lacteus and C. sexdecimsporus was also observed. The AFLP technique could become a powerful tool for genera such as Coprotus, in which a high intra-specific homogeneity does not allow detection of genetic variability using other PCR-based markers.