Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism: An Invaluable Fingerprinting Technique for Genomic, Transcriptomic, and Epigenetic Studies

Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) is a PCR-based technique that uses selective amplification of a subset of digested DNA fragments to generate and compare unique fingerprints for genomes of interest. The power of this method relies mainly in that it does not require prior information regarding the targeted genome, as well as in its high reproducibility and sensitivity for detecting polymorphism at the level of DNA sequence. Widely used for plant and microbial studies, AFLP is employed for a variety of applications, such as to assess genetic diversity within species or among closely related species, to infer population-level phylogenies and biogeographic patterns, to generate genetic maps, and to determine relatedness among cultivars. Variations of standard AFLP methodology have been also developed for targeting additional levels of diversity, such as transcriptomic variation and DNA methylation polymorphism.