RAPD markers are decamer (10 nucleotides long) DNA fragments from PCR amplification of random segments of genomic DNA with a single primer of arbitrary nucleotide sequence and which are able to differentiate between genetically distinct individuals, although not necessarily in a reproducible way.
It is used to analyze the genetic diversity of an individual by using random primers. Due to problems in experiment reproducibility, many scientific journals do not accept experiments merely based on RAPDs anymore.
RAPD requires only one primer for amplification.