AFLP-based transcript profiling for genetic relationships of mulberry (genus Morus) germplasm

Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis was used to measure the genetic diversity of the genus Morus among cultivated mulberry plants of different origins and naturally occurring wild types. A total of 105 clearly visible amplified bands were separated on a polyacrylamide gel, and 27 bands (24.58%) of them were found to be polymorphic. The genetic similarity coefficient based on the AFLP ranged from 0.556 to 0.992 between the mulberry cultivars themselves, and from 0.603 to 0.865 between the mulberry cultivars and the wild type mulberries. The cophenetic correlation coefficient was r=0.9606, indicating a high statistical agreement between the dendrogram clusters and the similarity matrix. Cluster analysis of the AFLPs using the unweighted pair group method with an arithmetic average (UPGMA) revealed a genetic distance between the mulberry cultivars and wild type accessions, supporting the UPGMA clustering. The results of this study showed that AFLP analysis is a useful tool for investigating the genetic diversity of the genus Morus.