ABSTRACT
The advent of plant molecular genetics in the late 1980s triggered a rapid increase in the number of studies in which plant germplasm was analyzed by using molecular genetic markers. These investigations supplement the conventional descriptions of gene bank and other plant material based on ecogeographic or “passport” information and on morphological characteristics. Molecular studies of crop plant germplasm have varied widely in the types of germplasm studied, the types of marker used, and the biological questions investigated.
