Table 1 Types of commonly used molecular markers and their relative benefits (adapted from Schlötterer, 2004)
Marker | Marker type | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|---|---|
Amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs) | Whole-genome fingerprinting | Quick to optimize, many loci, cheap, no ascertainment bias | Anonymous, dominant, reproducibility issues |
Microsatellites (simple sequence repeat markers, SSRs) | Short tandem repeats | Polymorphic, co-dominant | Hard to automate, genomic SSRs often species-specific, homoplasy |
DNA sequencing | Locus-specific sequence | High information content, universal primers available | Expensive to apply, currently no automation |
Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) | Nucleotide-specific amplification | Can be automated, highly abundant | Low information content, ascertainment bias |
