Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD)

Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD
 
  • A PCR based molecular marker technique in which a single type of random decamer primers are used to amplify a set of DNA segment distributed randomly throughout the genome.
  • In this technique, a single species of decamer (10 bp) primers are used to exploit random sites from the genome and resulted in polymorphism between two distinct species.
Advantages
  • Only a small amount of DNA is required for PCR amplification.
  • No need of radioactivity as RFLP
  • There is no need of prior genomic information for designing primer
  • The primers are random and can be used across a large variety of species.
Disadvantages
  • It is a dominant type of marker system and this causes a loss of information relative to marker which shows codominance.
  • It is not a reproducible method because of short primer length, that binds to nonspecific sites in the genome and makes the results inconvenient for data interpretation.

Last modified: Monday, 2 April 2012, 11:20 PM