Cultivar identification and genetic fingerprinting of temperate fruit tree species using DNA markers

In recent years we have witnessed critical advances in the applications of molecular markers for genetic fingerprinting in cultivated plants. Their advantages have been widely recognised but they are even more important in woody perennials due to some particularities of these species such as their long generation time, their large individual size and their vegetative propagation. In this review, the information so far published in molecular fingerprinting of temperate fruit tree species using DNA markers is analysed with the goal of obtaining a common ground that will allow an easier and faster genetic identification that, at the same time, has to be reproducible among laboratories. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.