Genetic identification of fruit tree plants is important in all phases of the production process. On peach the genotypes identification based only on the morphologic and phenologic characteristics leaves doubts on the true identity of some cultivars. Microsatellite markers were used aiming at the molecular characterization of eight nectarine and 28 peach cultivars. Thirteen microsatellite primers were used and all of them generated enough polimorfism that may identify 32 out of 36 of the analysed cultivars. The greatest genetic similarity was found between the fresh market 'Coral' and 'Planalto'(0,94) and between the 'Della Nona' and 'Marfim' cultivars (0,90), whereas for caning peaches the similarity was 0,93 between the 'Jubileu' and 'Capdeboscq' cultivars and 0,92 between the 'Jade' and 'Esmeralda' ones. The microsatellite markers made possible to separate into distinct groups of the nectarines and fresh market peaches from those caning cultivars that showed a high agreement among genealogical data and those of microsatellite markers that confirm tha this technique is useful for genetic characterization.
Prunus persica; single sequence repeat; fingerprinting
