Amplified fragment length polymorphism: an adept technique for genome mapping, genetic differentiation, and intraspecific variation in protozoan parasites

With the advent of polymerase chain reaction (PCR), genetic markers are now accessible for all organisms, including parasites. Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) is a PCR-based marker for the rapid screening of genetic diversity and intraspecific variation. It is a potent fingerprinting technique for genomic DNAs of any origin or complexity and rapidly generates a number of highly replicable markers that allow high-resolution genotyping. AFLPs are convenient and reliable in comparison to other markers like random amplified polymorphic DNA, restriction fragment length polymorphism, and simple sequence repeat in terms of time and cost efficiency, reproducibility, and resolution as it does not require template DNA sequencing. In addition, AFLP essentially probes the entire genome at random, without prior sequence knowledge. So, AFLP markers have emerged as an advance type of genetic marker with broad application in genomic mapping, population genetics, and DNA fingerprinting and are ideally suited as screening tool for molecular markers linked with biological and clinical traits. This review describes the AFLP procedure and its applications and overview in the fingerprinting of a genome, which has been currently used in parasite genome research. We outline the AFLP procedure adapted for Leishmania genome study and discuss the benefits of AFLPs for assessing genetic variation and genome mapping over other existing molecular techniques. We highlight the possible use of AFLPs as genetic markers with its broad application in parasitological research because it allows random screening of the entire genome for linkage with genetic and clinical properties of the parasite. In this review, we have taken a pragmatic approach on the study of AFLP for genome mapping and polymorphism in protozoan parasites and conclude that AFLP is a very useful tool.