Understanding the genetics of floricultural germplasm represents a value added component of managing collections. Molecular approaches collectively represent a potential goldmine of important information that can be applied to programmes of genetic improvement. The development and utilization of molecular markers for the exploitation and identification of plant genetic diversity is one of the most key developments in the field of molecular genetics studies. Molecular markers are popular tool, due to their stability, cost-effectiveness and ease of use for a variety of applications in the field of molecular genetics. To know the role of molecular markers in genetic studies of floricultural crops, a number of molecular marker techniques have been reviewed by many researchers in worldwide. However, all these reviews were meant for researchers with advanced knowledge of molecular markers and their utility in limited aspects under floricultural crops. This review presents an overview of different marker technologies and their variants with a comparative account of their characteristic features and applications especially diverse molecular techniques used in assessing plant genetic diversity, inter-relationship between the genotypes, genetic purity, DNA barcode, tagging of important genes, development of linkage maps, marker assisted selection and application of molecular markers in tissue culture of floricultural crops. Altogether, the characteristics and types of markers with their applications and some recent advancement in genetic studies of floricultural crops are discussed. Highlightsm Molecular markers play an important role for assessing the genetic diversity and identification of desirable traits, inter-relationship between the genotypes and genetic purity analysis. m Molecular markers can be helpful to develop a DNA barcode in flowering crops, tagging of qualitative genes, development of linkage maps, marker assisted selection and clonal fidelity analysis in tissue cultured flowering plants.

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