ABSTRACT
When one thinks about the application of genetics in the context of conservation biology, it may be difficult to imagine all the possible ways in which molecular markers can be employed. People that are not familiar with this field tend to think about the “genetic health” of a given population as the main-and perhaps the only-concern of geneticists working with species conservation. This view is rather narrow, as today molecular approaches are some of the main tools employed by any research project that aims to deal with diverse aspects of evolution, taxonomy, population structure, and species ecology. Likewise, the field of genetics is continuously growing and diversifying, constantly providing new tools for several areas of conservation biology, and going far beyond aspects such as population “health” and long-term viability (e.g., see Frankham et al., 2002; Allendorf and Luikart, 2007).
