A preliminary amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) primers selection for spathoglottis species

Spathoglottis is a native terrestrial orchid that attracting horticultural interest as a landscaping plant. Distinguishing orchid at species level based on morphological characteristics is unconvincing as some characteristic may sensitive to environmental. Therefore, molecular characterization could be an alternative method in characterizing Spathoglottis species. Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) marker was selected to characterize the Spathoglottis species. Among 56 AFLP primer combinations tested on Spathoglottis plicata, only eight primer combinations gave clear scorable polymorphic bands. A total of 60 accessions of Spathoglottis species, hybrid and outgroup (Dendrobium) were analysed using the eight primer combinations and generated 891 polymorphic bands with 98.41% in average. The AFLP patterns showed that the Spathoglottis species sampled were clearly different.