Abstract: The amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) technique was used to assess the genomic DNA polymorphism of four species Emberiza (cioides, leucocephala, tristrami and spodocephala)Eleven pairs out of thirtynine AFLP primer pairs produced reproducible polymorphic DNA amplification patterns.The amplified bands ranged from 27~76 per primer pair. Among the 535 AFLP markers scored, 429 ones werepolymorphic. The proportion of polymorphic loci was 801%. In UPGMA cluster analysis, four buntings were grouped into one branch, in which Emberiza cioidesand Emberiza leucocephala clustered together, and Emberiza tristramis and Emberiza spodocephala were grouped closely The result indicates that it is practical to reveal genetic diversity of Emberiza with AFLP markers.

Key words: bunting, AFLP, genetic diversity, birds