Abstract: Massive loss of valuable plant species in the past centuries and its adverse impact on environmental and socioeconomic values has triggered the conservation of plant resources. Appropriate identification and characterization of plant materials is essential for the successful conservation of plant resources and to ensure their sustainable use. Molecular tools developed in the past few years provide easy, less laborious means for assigning known and unknown plant taxa. These techniques answer many new evolutionary and taxonomic questions, which were not previously possible with only phenotypic methods. Molecular techniques such as DNA barcoding, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), microsatellites and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) have recently been used for plant diversity studies. Each technique has its own advantages and limitations. These techniques differ in their resolving power to detect genetic differences, type of data they generate and their applicability to particular taxonomic levels. This review presents a basic description of different molecular techniques that can be utilized for DNA fingerprinting and molecular diversity analysis of plant species.
This is an open access article distributed under the
Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Export to BibTeX
MDPI and ACS Style
Arif, I.A.; Bakir, M.A.; Khan, H.A.; Al Farhan, A.H.; Al Homaidan, A.A.; Bahkali, A.H.; Al Sadoon, M.; Shobrak, M. A Brief Review of Molecular Techniques to Assess Plant Diversity. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2010, 11, 2079-2096.
Arif IA, Bakir MA, Khan HA, Al Farhan AH, Al Homaidan AA, Bahkali AH, Al Sadoon M, Shobrak M. A Brief Review of Molecular Techniques to Assess Plant Diversity. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2010; 11(5):2079-2096.
Arif, Ibrahim A.; Bakir, Mohammad A.; Khan, Haseeb A.; Al Farhan, Ahmad H.; Al Homaidan, Ali A.; Bahkali, Ali H.; Al Sadoon, Mohammad; Shobrak, Mohammad. 2010. "A Brief Review of Molecular Techniques to Assess Plant Diversity." Int. J. Mol. Sci. 11, no. 5: 2079-2096.