ABSTRACT
In Chapter 4, we presented a variety of techniques to generate DNA fragment patterns. The present chapter deals with the evaluation of these patterns, i.e., their translation into biological meaning. Several commonly used approaches are described, and some inevitable problems and pitfalls are discussed. Once the positions and matches of DNA bands have been scored, the data are ready to be evaluated quantitatively with the help of various statistical methods. Data can be analyzed in many ways, and a large number of computer programs have been developed, some of which are freely available on the Internet (see review by Labate
and Appendices 3 and 4). Examples for the application of these techniques are given in Chapters 6 and 7. The three main application areas are (1) the identification of genotypes; (2) the assessment of genetic diversity and/or relatedness (including phenetic, phylogenetic, population genetic, and phylogeographic analyses); and (3) segregation and linkage analysis for genetic mapping.
