Abstract
A total of 44 apricot genotypes belonging to germ-plasm collection of Corvinus University (Budapest, Hungary), BOKU University (IOG, Vienna) and the Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry Laimburg (Italy) were screened with 10 microsatellite primer pairs previously developed in apricot. All primers produced polymorphic amplification patterns, revealing 85 different alleles. The mean number of alleles per lo-cus was 8.5. Out of them, 21 alleles occurred only once in the investigated samples. The observed heterozy-gosity for individual loci ranged from 0.9545 to 0.3182 with an average of 0.6604. A UPGMA dendrogram based on Nei's genetic distance divided the cultivars into two groups that reflect their geographic origin, one with genotypes originating from Europe and the other with genotypes from Central Asia. Implications of these data for the use of SSR markers as a tool for fingerprinting cultivars in breeder's right protection, but also in assisting breeding and selection programmes in apricot are discussed.