A mathematical method for determining genome divergence and species delineation using AFLP.

The delineation of bacterial species is presently achieved using direct DNA-DNA relatedness studies of whole genomes. It would be helpful to obtain the same genomically based delineation by indirect methods, provided that descriptions of individual genome composition of bacterial genomes are obtained and included in species descriptions. The amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) technique could provide the necessary data if the nucleotides involved in restriction and amplification are fundamental to the description of genomic divergences. Firstly, in order to verify that AFLP analysis permits a realistic exploration of bacterial genome composition, the strong correspondence between …