Abstract: The genetic diversity of 25 pomegranate cultivars cultivated in Shandong Province was analyzed by the fluorescent-AFLP marker techniques with 8 pairs of EcoR I/Mse I primer combinations. The results showed that the number of polymorphic loci amplified by 8 pairs of fluorescent-AFLP primers in 25 cultivars was 70 to 126, the average was 90.25, the mean percentage of polymorphic loci (P) was 41.78%. All average observed number of alleles, average effective number of alleles, average Nei's gene diversity index (H), and average Shannon's information index (I) was 1.4178,1.1874,0.1133 and 0.1752 respectively；Variance analysis's results indicated that there was a significant difference in Nei's gene diversity index and Shannon's information index of each locus. Cluster analysis was performed by using of UPGMA method based on Lei & Li similarity coefficients, and 25 pomegranate cultivars in Shandong were divided into 4 groups at 0.786 level of similarity coefficient. In addition the relationship in Shandong pomegranate cultivars and the foreground of breeding were discussed based on the results of AFLP analysis.

Key words: pomegranate, Punica granatum, AFLP marker, genetic diversity, genetic relationship