Abstract: Some of the empirical results obtained through the use of RFLP, AFLP, SSR and RAPD markers in the areas of DNA fingerprinting, measurement of genetic distance and heterosis, marker-assisted selections and abiotic stress tolerance are being described. Various difficulties that a user can encounter during the ontogeny of marker`s application have also been discussed. Marker mediated varietal fingerprinting and germplasm characterization appeared most common and most pervasive application with AFLP and SSR markers. Being cost effective, easy to handle and devoid of any radioisotope requirement, SSR markers are considered as the most suitable and reliable system for DNA fingerprinting. Capturing heterosis appeared most difficult with very little success due to lack of a facile marker system that could unconditionally identify the heterotic groups, population and progenies. Marker-assisted selections for qualitative traits appeared most successful after DNA fingerprinting while for quantitative characters, major disease resistance genes and genes controlling QTL for abiotic stress tolerance, the success is limited. It is anticipated that application of markers will remain restricted in these areas till the allele-specific markers are available and the cost of marker analysis is reduced significantly.