title: A brief review of molecular techniques to assess plant diversity.
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.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Fingerprinting and Biodiversity Unit, Prince Sultan Research Chair for Environment and Wildlife, College of Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Ibrahim A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Arif
authors.forename: Mohammad A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Bakir
authors.forename: Haseeb A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: Ahmad H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Al Farhan
authors.forename: Ali A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Al Homaidan
authors.forename: Ali H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Bahkali
authors.forename: Mohammad Al
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Sadoon
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shobrak
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D058889:Molecular Typing / Q000379:methods*; D010944:Plants / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant