USE OF AFLP-MARKERS FOR ESTIMATION OF THE INBREEDING LEVEL IN HELLEBORUS ORIENTALIS

Prerequisite for the development of F₁-hybrids in Helleborus orientalis Lam. is the evaluation of potential parents’ inbreeding levels. As no codominant marker system is available, a method to estimate the inbreeding coefficient based on AFLP-markers has been applied and evaluated based on the progeny of a presumable selfing experiment. The effect of marker numbers used in the analysis and the composition of an out-group for this calculation were analysed. Practical problems of the method are discussed.