Analysis of genetic diversities in apricot cultivars (Prunus armeniaca L.) with simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers.

Twenty-five pairs of SSR primers from apricot,peach and almond were used to detect the genetic diversities in 6 apricot(Prunus armeniaca L.)varieties.The results showed that 284 alleles were detected by these primers,and 3 to 17 alleles could be detected with an average of 11.36 alleles for each primer.Revealed by NTSYS,the genetic similarity varied from 0.083 to 0.987,with an average of 0.370,which showed that the genetic diversity of Chinese apricot germplasm was abundant.The clustering results of UPGMA showed that the 66 varieties were clustered into 5 groups,which were basically consistent with traditional geographical classification.Most cultivars from Sichuan and Guizhou Province were clustered into one group which was far from other varieties,and indicates that there may be some special germplasm in this area.Our experiment proved that SSR markers from almond genome are transferable to apricot as well.