A next step is to use these AFLP-primers in combination with methylation sensitive AFLP, in which methylation sensitive restriction enzymes are used to cleave sites within the bamboo transposon. The relation between methylation patterns and transposon activities is well established (Martienssen, 1998) and the activation of transposons during tissue culture is also a well documented phenomenon. The use of genotypes that have been cultured for six, eighteen, twenty-four and thirty-six months should allow to assess if long term tissue culture has any influence on methylation in general and on methylation patterns of transposons. This research is currently ongoing.