The conservation of natural genetic variation is important not only for ethical and aesthetic reasons but to ensure that the Earth's living resources may be used even more efficiently and sustainably in agriculture, forestry, food production and other industries. In the past ten years there have been many advances in molecular biology that have provided a suite of powerful tools with enormous potential for the screening and evaluation of biodiversity. Molecular Tools for Screening Biodiversity was compiled in order to provide a comprehensive description and assessment of these tools. The book describes detailed laboratory protocols and analysis techniques and discussses how the techniques can best be employed to tackle different diversity problems. Also detailed case studies of techniques used in animals and plants which address different biodiversity problems are included. The book is divided into five parts. Molecular Tools for Screening Biodiversity is aimed at investigators with interests in conservation, population biology, taxonomy, evolution, molecular systematics and the industrial applications of plant and animal diversity.