## 3 Results
### Genetic Variation of Apricots from Control Database
Based on delta K values from Structure, three clusters appeared to be the most appropriate number, and thus the division of 53 apricot cultivars into three putative populations (K3 \(\Delta\)K = 75.49; Figure 3B). The number of cultivars in each cluster was approximately proportionally balanced, with 19 cultivars assigned to the red cluster, 13 to the green cluster, and 21 to the blue cluster (Figure 3A). However, the green cluster with the lowest cultivar representation shows the highest distance of all three clusters (Figure 3C). The numerical expression of the genetic distances between the clusters resulting from the Structure analysis is as follows: green-blue 0.1498; green-red 0.0929; and blue-red 0.0412. The Structure also showed that average distances (expected heterozygosity) between individual cultivars in the same cluster are 0.8744 for the red, 0.6108 for the green, and 0.7748 for the blue cluster. The dendrogram divides the samples very similarly (Figure 4). Keeping the colour division of the samples into three clusters according to the Structure (red, green, and blue), in the dendrogram, the samples from the green cluster are in the upper part of the dendrogram, the samples from the red cluster are in the middle, and the samples belonging to the blue cluster are in the lower part. This blue part of the dendrogram contains samples from other clusters, especially 'Koolgat' from the red cluster and 'Vemina' from the green cluster. According to the Structure analysis, the 'Koolgat' cultivar with serial number 2 is a borderline sample that ends the red cluster, belonging to this cluster with 49.8%, but is assigned to the blue cluster with 44.5% (Figure 3A). The cultivar 'Vemina', which \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline
**Locus** & _Na_ & **Size Range (bp)** & _Ne_ & _Ho_ & _He_ & _PIC_ & _PI_ & \(I\) & \(F\) \\ \hline UDP96-005 & 16 & 80–152 & 6.511 & 0.922 & 0.846 & 0.831 & 0.039 & 2.190 & \(-\)0.089 \\ UDP98-409 & 16 & 120–162 & 6.495 & 0.887 & 0.846 & 0.830 & 0.039 & 2.179 & \(-\)0.048 \\ Pchcm5 & 16 & 239–281 & 6.173 & 0.960 & 0.838 & 0.825 & 0.039 & 2.227 & \(-\)0.146 \\ UDP98-412 & 14 & 76–116 & 6.988 & 1.000 & 0.857 & 0.841 & 0.037 & 2.143 & \(-\)0.167 \\ UDP98-411 & 10 & 150–176 & 3.595 & 0.863 & 0.722 & 0.698 & 0.101 & 1.679 & \(-\)0.195 \\ Pchgms2 & 10 & 130–170 & 5.466 & 0.956 & 0.817 & 0.798 & 0.052 & 1.949 & \(-\)0.170 \\ UDP98\(-\)406 & 13 & 80–124 & 5.883 & 0.981 & 0.830 & 0.811 & 0.047 & 2.064 & \(-\)0.182 \\ UDP96-003 & 14 & 86–124 & 6.399 & 0.792 & 0.844 & 0.827 & 0.041 & 2.127 & 0.061 \\ Pchgms4 & 10 & 126–178 & 5.765 & 0.981 & 0.827 & 0.806 & 0.051 & 1.944 & \(-\)0.187 \\ UDP96-019 & 13 & 153–209 & 2.547 & 0.640 & 0.607 & 0.592 & 0.170 & 1.534 & \(-\)0.054 \\ UDP97-402 & 11 & 118–140 & 8.486 & 0.925 & 0.882 & 0.871 & 0.025 & 2.242 & \(-\)0.048 \\ \hline Mean & 13 & \(-\) & 5.846 & 0.901 & 0.811 & 0.794 & 0.058 & 2.025 & \(-\)0.111 \\ SE & 0.739 & \(-\) & 0.483 & 0.032 & 0.024 & 0.022 & 0.012 & 0.070 & 0.025 \\ \hline \end{tabular} _Na_ = No. of different alleles; _Ne_ = No. of effective alleles; _Ho_ = Observed heterozygosity; _He_ = Expected heterozygosity; _PIC_ = Polymorphic information content; _PI_ = Probability of identity; \(I\) = [PERSON]’s information index; \(F\) = Fixation index; _SE_ = Standard error.  
\end{table} 
Table 3: Genetic parameters of 11 microsatellite loci analysed in control set of 53 apricot cultivars. belongs to the green cluster with the highest percentage rate (37.4%) and is assigned in the dendrogram to samples from the blue cluster, has a smaller but comparable percentage belonging to the remaining clusters--35.4% to the red cluster and 27.2% to the blue cluster. It is also a border sample closing the green cluster with serial number 43 (Figure 3A). Figure 3: Classification of 53 apricot cultivars using a Bayesian approach in the Structure program. Figure 2: Allelic patterns across geographical origin groups (**A**).