Current molecular methods for plant genome identification

At least four molecular methods have been used for plant species and plant varietal identification. These include protein isoenzymes, restriction fragment length polymorphisms and more recently two alternate PCR-based procedures. One approach is based broadly on methods which amplify plant DNAs using short oligonucleotide primers to produce complex multibanded 'fingerprint' patterns. The method can be used on any plant, is relatively cheap and easy to set up, but has a number of technical limitations. A second approach is to isolate short tandem repeats (STRs) from a test plant, each example of which is locus-specific and may show length variation between individuals. Results from several STR loci will provide a genetic profile of plant variety. However, in comparison with random amplification methods STRs are costly to establish in both time and resources.