Molecular Markers and MAPS - Molecular markers consist of specific molecules, which show easily detectable differences among different strains of a species or among different species. Several types of DNA sequences provide a large number of valuable markers that can be used to map their locations in the chromosomes of various species.

A linear map of different chromosomes of a species depicting the locations of various molecular markers is known as molecular map. In case of plants, the molecular markers used for preparation of genome maps are

(1) restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and

(2) random amplified polymorphic DNAs (RAPDs; pronounced as rapids).