This paper is aimed at giving comments to some institutions, which in their molecular biology/ genetics related job postings indicate that the incumbent must have very good knowledge on a specific marker.
The use of molecular markers as basic and applied research tools in plant and animal biology have been used from decades. Various types of markers have been developed and used with different modifications all the time. They have been continuously changing with the advent of new technologies supporting them. Christian summarized them as protein variants (allozymes), DNA sequence polymorphism and DNA repeat variation. The use of marker systems began with detecting variations at the level of bigger molecules (allozymes) followed by hybridization based DNA markers (such as RFLPs), and PCR based markers. From a relatively larger DNA fragments, now the field has progressed to identification of single base sequence variations (mutations) using next generation sequencing approaches. These latter approaches enable high throughput whole genome (both chromosomal and extra-chromosomal DNA) scans, which are more advanced and more efficient to date. The results of quite a large number of research works on application of molecular markers covering almost the entire living organisms have been published in internationally reputed publications (journals and books). The design and development of different DNA and protein based markers is the primary step before their application. Chenuil categorized the criteria of choosing molecular markers into three as: (1) the level of variability, (2) the nature of the information (e.g. dominance vs. codominance, ploidy) and (3) the availability of laboratory equipment and experience of the scientist.