Molecular markers for biodiversity analysis of wildlife animals: a brief review

Abstract

Molecular markers are indis­pensable tools for determining the genetic variation and biodiversity with high levels of accuracy and repro­ducibility. These markers are mainly classified into two types; mitochondrial and nuclear markers. The widely used mitochondrial DNA markers with decreasing order of conserved sequences are 12S rDNA > 16S rDNA > cytochrome b > control region (CR); thus the 12S rDNA is highly conserved and the CR is highly variable. The most commonly used nuclear markers for DNA fingerprinting include random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and microsatellites. This short review narrates the application of these molecular markers for biodiversity analysis of wildlife animals.