Molecular markers have been used thoroughly in many fruit crops species for fingerprinting analysis during the vegetal material certification process, and as an auxiliary tool in breeding programs to access genetic variability among genotypes. The plum is an important crop in Southern Brazil. The present paper aims to contribute for the genetic-molecular characterization of 17 plum cultivars, which were analyzed with 12 RAPD markers that produced 187 polymorphisms. The OP A20 marker was the most polymorphic, producing 26 different profiles. The cluster analysis was represented by a dendrogram using the UPGMA method, and showed a clear cultivar separation in to three groups corresponding to the species, Prunus salicina, Prunus domestica and Prunus cerasifera, respectively. A high degree of polymorphism was detected by the RAPD markers in the plum. This confirms the potential of the techanique of fingerprinting analysis and its usefulness in the estimate of the genetic variability among plum cultivars.
Prunus spp.; molecular markers; fingerprinting
