Chroboková E., Raddová J., Vachůn M., Krška B., Pidra M., 2011. An analysis of apricot cultivars by random amplified polymorphic DNA and microsatellite primers. Hort. Sci. (Prague), 38: 125-133.The random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique and microsatellites were used to study the genetic diversity and to identify cultivars within a collection of 95 cultivars of Prunus armeniaca L. A dendrogram based on 13 RAPD primers and a dendrogram based on 9 microsatellite primers were prepared using the unweighted pair group method with average (UPGMA) group analysis. In both dendrograms, the cultivars were classified into five groups, according to their geographic origin: hybrids originated by hybridization among cultivars of European and Asian origin, European cultivars, American cultivars, Asian cultivars and interspecific hybrids. Eleven cultivars were not distinguished (9 cultivars with supposed relatedness to Velkopavlovická cv., 2 cvs Vynoslivyj and Vynoslivyj 21/1 that are assumed to be clones) using 9 microsatellite primers. The similarities and the differences revealed among incorporation of cultivars into groups were compared with the literature findings. The results of these analyses have a direct implication on the selection of new breeding progenitors at the Faculty of Horticulture, Mendel University in Brno, Lednice, Czech Republic.Keywords: Prunus armeniaca L.; microsatellites; RAPD primers; cultivar identification Fast and cost-effective identification of important plant cultivars in agriculture and horticulture as well as for practical breeding purposes and plant proprietary rights protection is very important. The random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) molecular methods and microsatellites based on the DNA study are effective tools often used for these purposes.The RAPD method was reported by Williams et al. (1990). The greatest advantage of the RAPD approach is its technical simplicity, paired with the independence of any prior DNA sequence information. Molecular RAPD markers facilitate the study of genetic variability among Prunus rootstocks (Casas et al. 1999). This polymorphism was evaluated using 7 RAPD primers. Twenty-five apricot cultivars were analysed and 19 were distinguished using the RAPD markers (Mariniello et al. 2002). These markers were also successfully used for identifying and studying of the genetic relationships of grapes Moravcová et al. 2006;Pidra et al. 2006).Another method used for cultivar identification is the simple sequence repeat (SSR) approach. The existence of repeated simple sequence motives (also called microsatellites) in plant nuclear DNA was demonstrated by Delseny et al. (1983) and Tautz, Renz (1984). Microsatellites are ideal DNA markers for genetic mapping and population-genetic studies because of their abundance, co-dominant character, ease of detection by PCR, extensive genome coverage and requirement of a small amount of starting DNA.The first application of microsatellites in plants was in cultivar identification, where microsatellites were use...