Single-Strand Conformational Polymorphism (SSCP) for the Identification of Endomycorrhizal Fungi

Among the different methods devised to detect genetic polymorphisms, the analysis of single-strand conformation is simple and yet exquisitely sensitive (1 –5 ). It has been reported that even single base substitution can be detected between DNA fragments ranging in size from 100–450 bp (3 ). Coupled with PCR amplification, SSCP analysis can be used to rapidly identify variants of a defined DNA segment, without relying on prior knowledge of their DNA sequences.