Marker technologies
Many different marker technologies have been developed to study variation in the DNA. Here we present an overview of the characteristics of the more commonly used technologies. Row and column heads in the table can be selected, after which more detailed information about the technology or the characteristic is presented.
| abundance | level of polymorphism | locus specificity | codominance of alleles | reproducibility | labor intensity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allozymes | low | low | yes | yes | high | low |
| RFLP | high | medium | yes | yes | high | high |
| Minisatellites | medium | high | no/yes | no/yes | high | high |
| RAPD | high | medium | no | no | low | low |
| Microsatellites | high | high | yes | yes | high | low |
| ISSR | medium-high | medium | no | no | medium-high | low |
| SSCP | low | low | yes | yes | medium | low-medium |
| CAPS | low | low-medium | yes | yes | high | low-medium |
| SCAR | low | medium | yes | yes/no | high | low |
| AFLP | high | medium | no | no/yes | high | medium |
| technical demands | operational costs | development costs | quantity of DNA required | amenability to automation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allozymes | low | low | low | - | no |
| RFLP | high | high | medium-high | high | no |
| Minisatellites | high | high | medium-high | high | no |
| RAPD | low | low | low | low | yes |
| Microsatellites | low-medium | low-medium | high | low | yes |
| ISSR | low-medium | low-medium | low | low | yes |
| SSCP | medium | low-medium | high | low | no |
| CAPS | low-medium | low-medium | high | low | yes |
| SCAR | low | low | high | low | yes |
| AFLP | medium | medium | low | medium | yes |