Microdissection and microcloning of plant chromosomes

Cytogenetic and molecular tools play an increasingly important role in plant genome research. A number of interesting applications that involve chromosome painting, the relationship between specific chromosomes and specific linkage groups, the relationships between physical and genetic distances on linkage maps, and the isolation of genes of interest, have been the subjects of recently published research. The aim of this paper is to review the different techniques available for chromosome microdissection and microcloning, and their use for the study of plant genomes. The quality of chromosomal DNA obtained is considered, and some recent results from our laboratory are presented.