Abstract: Six pollen-specific SFB genes were cloned by PCR amplification from nine cultivars of apricot（Prunus armeniaca）native to China，these novel SFB genes were denoted as Par-SFB8，Par-SFB9，Par-SFB11，Par-SFB17，Par-SFB23 and Par-SFB26 in corresponding to style-specific S-RNases，respec-
tively. The gene sequences were submitted to the GenBank and their accession number are EU652883，EU935588，EU652884，EU652885，EU652886 and EU652887，respectively. The apricot SFB genes showed similar structural characteristics to SFB genes of other Prunus species. Introns of SFBs were located at 5′ terminal upstream of the initial codon，with intron lengths of 90–108 bp，and nucleotide sequence homologies of 63.9%–93.3%. Based on amino acid sequence alignment，the similarity of SFB
alleles ranged from 73.7% to 85.3% in P. armeniaca，and from 75.2% to 97.7% comparing with other Prunus species. The intergenic distances for the S9，S11，S17 and S26 haplotypes were determined directly by specific PCR amplification，implying that the two genes are physically linked in apricot. The SFB genes are specifically expressed in pollen. All these evidence indicated that the SFB genes were good candidates for pollen S-determinants in apricot.

Key words: Chinese apricot, self-incompatibility, pollen SFB genes, cloning, sequence