ABSTRACT
Conservation biology deals with the sustainable management and protection of wild species. It is a powerful tool to protect the forest ecosystem. Knowledge of genetic variation within a plant population is immensely important in this regard. For improvement of the conservation status of a plant, its genetic diversity must be maintained. Desirable genetic changes can be introduced by plant breeding. Molecular markers are a promising and helpful tool in the field of genetic diversity study. Being simple and low-cost, molecular markers are a helpful and efficient tool in understanding genetic variation among a population and identify the natural hybrids within. For protecting the forest ecosystem, the genus Boswellia is particularly important. Boswellia is a deciduous tree with several traditional uses found in India, housing more than 200 phytochemicals. That’s why knowledge about the genetic diversity among several Boswellia species is very important. This chapter deals with the uses of various molecular markers to access the genetic diversity of Boswellia sp.
