RAPDs for Conservation of Genetic Resources - The subject of in situ and ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources (PGR). It will be seen that genetic resources arc traditionally characterized by a combination of morphological and agronomic traits. The effectiveness of this approach is really limited and therefore RAPDs are recommended as a useful system for evaluation and characterization of genetic resources.
Some success in this direction has already been achieved elsewhere, but efforts in this direction are also being made at NFPTCR (National Facility for Plant Tissue Culture Repository), New Delhi.
Wayne Powell and his coworkers at Scottish Crop Research Institute (Dundee, U.K.) have also used RAPDs for evaluation and characterization of collections from tree genera Gliricidia (nitrogen-fixing trees within agroforestry systems in the tropics) and Theobroma (T. cacao = cocoa).