Includes cutting-edge methods and protocols; Provides step-by-step detail essential for reproducible results; Contains key notes and implementation advice from the experts; Plant taxonomy is an ancient discipline facing new challenges with the current availability of a vast array of molecular approaches which allow reliable genealogy-based classifications. Although the primary focus of plant taxonomy is on the delimitation of species, molecular approaches also provide a better understanding of evolutionary processes, a particularly important issue for some taxonomic complex groups. Molecular Plant Taxonomy: Methods and Protocols describes laboratory protocols based on the use of nucleic acids and chromosomes for plant taxonomy, as well as guidelines for phylogenetic analysis of molecular data. Experts in the field also contribute review and application chapters that will encourage the reader to develop an integrative taxonomy approach, combining nucleic acid and cytogenetic data together with other crucial information (taxonomy, morphology, anatomy, ecology, reproductive biology, biogeography, paleobotany), which will help not only to best circumvent species delimitation but also to resolve the evolutionary processes in play. Written in the successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible protocols, and notes on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Keywords » DNA extraction - DNA sequences - flow cytometry - high-throughput genotyping - plant taxonomy Plant Taxonomy: A Historical Perspective, Current Challenges, and Perspectives ; Germinal Rouhan and Myriam Gaudeul; Guidelines for the Choice of Sequences for Molecular Plant Taxonomy ; Pascale Besse; Leaf Tissue Sampling and DNA Extraction Protocols ; Kassa Semagn; DNA Extraction from Herbarium Specimens ; Lenka Záveská Drábková; 5 Analysis of Variation in Chloroplast DNA Sequences ; Berthold Heinze, Agnieszka Koziel-Monte, and Daniela Jahn; Mitochondrial Genome and Plant Taxonomy ; Jérôme Duminil; Nuclear Ribosomal RNA Genes: ITS Region; Pascale Besse; New Technologies for Ultrahigh-Throughput Genotyping in Plant Taxonomy ; David Edwards, Manuel Zander, Jessica Dalton-Morgan, and Jacqueline Batley; Development of Microsatellite-Enriched Libraries ; Hélène Vignes and Ronan Rivallan; Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Derived Techniques ; Kantipudi Nirmal Babu, Muliyar Krishna Rajesh, Kukkumgai Samsudeen, Divakaran Minoo, Erinjery Jose Suraby, Kallayan Anupama, and Paul Ritto; Multilocus Profiling with AFLP, ISSR, and SAMPL. ; Luis F. Goulao and Cristina M. Oliveira; Transposon-Based Tagging: IRAP, REMAP, and iPBS. ; Ruslan Kalendar and Alan H. Schulman; Phylogenetic Reconstruction Methods: An Overview ; Alexandre De Bruyn, Darren P. Martin, and Pierre Lefeuvre; The Application of Flow Cytometry for Estimating Genome Size and Ploidy Level in Plants ; Jaume Pellicer and Ilia J. Leitch; Molecular Cytogenetics (FISH and Fluorochrome Banding): Resolving Species Relationships and Genome Organization ; Sonja Siljak-Yakovlev, Fatima Pustahija, Vedrana Vicic, and Odile Robin; GISH: Resolving Interspecific and Intergeneric Hybrids ; Nathalie Piperidis; On the Relevance of Molecular Tools for Taxonomic Revision in Malvales, Malvaceae s.l., and Dombeyoideae ; Timothée Le Péchon and Luc D.B. Gigord; What Has Molecular Systematics Contributed to Our Knowledge of the Plant Family Proteaceae; Peter H. Weston