Microsatellites - Molecular markers of choice - A review

The advent of DNA technology over the recent years has led to the development of molecular markers that are highly precise, convenient and cost effective for detection of polymorphism among individuals and also for individual identification. These molecular marker techniques viz., Restriction fragment length polymorphism, Random amplified polymorphic DNA, Amplified fragment length polymorphism, DNA fingerprinting, microsatellites and the most recent, microarrays are advantageous over other conventional techniques like protein polymorphism and immunogenetic techniques. As these techniques directly assess the sample at the DNA level the probability of their accuracy is much greater. Among these marker systems the ideal marker should have many scorable and highly polymorphic loci with codominant alleles and should be densely distributed throughout the genome. Microsatellite markers meet these requirements and have therefore become the markers of choice for a variety of analyses related to linkage mapping, forensic investigations, paternity and kinship determination and population genetic studies.