Molecular Markers as Tools for Genetic Diversity Analysis

In the last 20 years molecular genetics has used a lot of neutral molecular markers such as microsatellites in different studies of population biology, which has allowed to know and evaluate the impact of genetic drift on the diversity of genes in populations, the gene flow within and between populations and the degree of inbreeding present in populations. Recent technological advances in molecular biology allow the scanning of the entire genome; gene expression pattern is useful to make actual estimates of the level of genetic variation within individuals of a population and among populations becoming thus a tool for conservation biology.

Conservation genetics is a growing field as revealed by the increasing numbers of papers published on this topic over the past ten years. The graph shows the frequency of papers containing the term ‘conservation genetics’ and the respective name of the marker in a Web of Science search :(http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/science_products/a-z/web_of_science) plotted against time. The total number of papers has increased from four in 1990 to 682 in 2009.

Reference:
Ouborg NJ, Pertoldi C, Loeschcke V, Bijlsma R, Hedrick PW (2010). Conservation genetics in transition to conservation genomics. Trends Genet 26: 177-187. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2010.01.001