Identification of wild and cultivated sunflower for breeding purposes by AFLP markers.

Amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs) represent one of the most powerful polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based markers which enables one to discriminate single plants by DNA analysis. To date this technique has only been applied in cultivated sunflower to detect genetic diversity among oilseed inbred lines. In this article we report the use of AFLP markers to investigate the level of diversity within and between populations of Helianthus argophyllus collected in the Maputo area, Mozambique, both for taxonomic and breeding purposes.