Development of DNA fingerprinting keys for discrimination of Cicer echinospermum (P.H. Davis) accessions using AFLP markers

To test the hypothesis that DNA markers associated with specific genetic make-up can be detected and used to discriminate genotypes, amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers were produced for 14 accessions in Cicer echinospermum, a close relative of Cicer arietinum (chickpea). Six selective amplification primer combinations produced high polymorphism with average polymorphic loci of 77.2%. The polymorphism detected in this study enabled fingerprinting keys to be established to discriminate accessions within C. echinospermum. Results showed that molecular analysis using AFLP was a good and reliable technique to differentiate C. echinospermum accessions and to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships between them, which could help parental selection in chickpea improvement programs.