Abstract: A total of 29 sand pear germp lasm (mainly red skinned) native to southwest of China were
subjected to simp le sequence repeat ( SSR) analysis. Six pairs of SSR p rimers (BGA35, KU10, BGT23b,
NH004a, NH011b and NH015a) could generate a large number of alleles. The p rimer NH004a, which p ro
duced the highest allele numbers and the most effective alleles, and high heterozygosity and Shannon informa
tion index, showed the best identification power. Using six pairs of SSR p rimers, all accessions or types could
be distinguished excep t for three pairs of cultivars, which might belong to the synonymy cases or bud mutants.
Twenty nine pear accessions could be divided into fourmajor group s obviously based on the UPGMA cluster a
nalysis. Group Ⅰ consisted of cultivars all native to Yunnan p rovince, including two green and nine red
skinned sand pears, inferring a near genetic relationship between the red and green skinned pears. In groups
Ⅱand Ⅲ, the red skinned pears from Huili County of Sichuan Province and from Yunnan Province mingled to
gether, which might suggest cultivarmovement from Yuannan to Sichuan. In group Ⅳ, not onlywere Xiangsu
li and Zaiyangli from Huili County of Sichuan Province, Midu Xiangsuli and Changshui Huobali native to Yun
nan Province not closely clustered, but also were far from other groups. Huobali pear types distributed in Yun
nan and Sichuan p rovincesmight have different origins. The results above indicates large genetic diversity of
germp lasm resources of red skinned sand pear cultivars in China

Key words: Sand pear, SSR, Cultivar identification, Genetic relationship