**1. Introduction**

248 Genetic Diversity in Plants

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Apricot is a fruit species adopted to a wide geographical areas (De Poerderlé, 1788; Loudon, 1838; Arakelyan, 1968; Mehlenbacher et al. 1991; Huxley, 1992; Butner, 2001). 173 years ago, Loudon (1838) was first to mention that wild apricots with different shades of pink flowers had been used as ornamental purpose for centuries. Nowadays commercial production areas of apricots are still very limited with a small number of varieties, although they spread across a wide area all over the world. Looking at the statistics, the production value has been observed to show upward trend by years. This increase in production is closely related with breeding studies in different countries. Breeding programs were modified generally according to consumer's demands and also some subjects such as resistance to diseases (Sharka, Monilinia etc.) and frost damages, determination of self-(in)compatibility.

Germplasm collection and characterization is an early essential stage to initiate a breeding program for diversity. Traditionally germplasm collection and characterization had been done discribing phenological, pomological and morphological characteristics such as tree vigor and growth habit (Perez-Gonzales, 1992; Badanes et al. 1998; Asma & Ozturk, 2005), fruit quality features (Rehder, 1940; Bailey & Hough, 1975; Audergon et al. 1990; Souty et al. 1990; Crossa-Raynaud & Audergon, 1991; Parolari et al. 1992; Bassi & Bartolozzi, 1993; Badanes et al. 1998; Gurrieri et al. 2001; Ledbetter & Petterson, 2004; Asma & Ozturk, 2005; Ruiz & Egea, 2008; Milosevic et al. 2010), leaf (Bailey, 1916; Hou, 1983; Rostova & Sokolova, 1992), stone (Felföldi et al. 2009; Malik et al. 2010), flower (Rodrigo et al. 2006; Yilmaz & Paydas-Kargi, 2010), stigma and stylus (Viti et al. 2000) and pollen (Dezhong et al. 1995; Davarynejad et al. 2005; Arzani et al. 2005; Asma, 2008) comparing and combining the results of characaterization researches published by different groups is a difficult tusk since different variety of morphological, phenological and pomological characteristics have been assessed by the research groups. International UPOV and IPGRI criteria was created in order to overcome this unrequred situation and to enable researchers use common descriptor characteristics.

<sup>\*</sup> Corresponding Author

In the last two decades, molecular studies have been integrated into the conventional germplasm characterization researches (Battistini & Sansavini, 1991; Badanes et al. 1996; Mariniello et al. 2002; Hurtado et al. 2001, 2002; Hormaza, 2002; Vilanova et al. 2003; Geuna et al. 2003; Zhebentyayeva & Sivolap, 2000; Zhebentyayeva et al. 2003; Sanchez-Perez et al. 2005; Romero et al. 2003, 2006; Rao et al. 2008; Yilmaz, 2008; Akpinar et al. 2010) and genetic diversity in apricot. Recent studies show that this genetic diversity originated in Central Asia and transfered to Middle Asia and Caucasia. Later on, the apricot was taken to Europe, and recently spreaded from Europe to North America and the rest of world.
