Molecular markers in medicinal plant biotechnology: past and present

Plant based medicines have gained popularity worldwide due to their almost negligible side effects. In India, the three traditional medicinal systems, namely homeopathy, Ayurveda and Siddha rely heavily on plants for medicinal formulations. To prevent the indiscriminate collection of these valuable medicinal plants and for their proper authentication and conservation, it is imperative to go for sustained efforts towards proper germplasm cataloguing and devising conservation strategies. For this purpose, molecular markers have a significant role, as they provide information ranging from diversity at nucleotide level (single nucleotide polymorphisms) to gene and allele frequencies (genotype information), the extent and distribution of genetic diversity, and population structure. Over the past twenty years, the molecular marker field has completely transformed the meaning of conservation genetics which has emerged from a theory-based field of population biology to a full-fledged pragmatic discipline. In this review, we have explored the transition and transformation of molecular marker technologies throughout these years.