Comparison Between AFLP and RFLP Markers in Detecting the Diversity of Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

AFLP and RFLP were used to study the diversity of 20 rice cultivars. 15 primer combinations were used in the AFLP analysis and 47 - 118 bands were amplified in each lane. A total of 107 polymorphic bands were detected in the RFLP analysis using 49 RFLP probes. The cluster analysis based on RFLP data showed that 20 rice cultivars could be divided into an indica group and a japonica group, as did the AFLP data; however AFLP is more suitable in detecting the difference of pedigree and ecotype among the 20 cultivars.The genetic distance based on AFLP and RFLP data showed the same tendency, but AFLP markers increased the measure of genetic distance among intra-subspecific cultivars and decreased the measure of genetic distance among inter-subspecific cultivars relative to RFLP markers. That indicated that AFLP is more suitable than RFLP in the diversity study and RFLP is more suitable to study the indica-japonica differentiation of cultivars.