Abstract:To estimate genetic relationships among 31 cultivated and 34 wild grape accessions originating from regions near the Caspian Sea in the Azerbaijan Republic, RAPD analysis was performed with 27 decamer primers selected from a total of 55 primers. The most discriminating primers were OPC-16, OPF-18 and OPA-17, which showed the highest values of genetic diversity (0.927, 0.914 and 0.909, respectively). The lowest values of diversity pertained to the markers OPA-1 (0.615) and V-20 (0.624). The cluster analysis representing genetic similarity among all selected samples divided the genotypes into nine separate groups at similarity index 0.508. Within the studied Azerbaijan grape populations the highest genetic diversity belonged to the population of cultivated samples originating from the Absheron peninsula, with a diversity index 0.852 and the next ranks were assigned to the wild populations originating from Nabran and Guba regions, with a diversity index 0.824 and 0.793, respectively. The lowest diversity was observed within Davachi individuals, with a diversity index 0.765. The wild population from Azerbaijan was molecularly similar to the cultivated gene pool from this area. This result supported the hypothesis that the southwest of the Caspian Sea is a region where grape was brought into culture. During the analysis a special band was observed which could be used in identifying wild and cultivated grape accessions with high or low resveratrol content. The results of this work clearly indicated that the RAPD analysis can be used to estimate genotypic similarities, genetic diversity and for clustering cultivated and wild grape accessions.Keywords: Azerbaijan wild and cultivated grape; genetic diversity; RAPD markers; resveratrol; similarity indexThe grape is unique: not only it is a major global horticultural crop but also it has ancient historical connections with the development of human culture. In the family Vitaceae it is the genus Vitis that is of major agronomic importance. It consists of ~ 60 mutually crossable species that exist almost exclusively in the northern hemisphere . Currently, Vitis vinifera is among the most important plant species cultivated on an area of about 7.9 million ha and there exist more than 10 000 grape cultivars worldwide, with annual production of approximately 58 million tons (FAO 2004).Modern crops are relatively recent descendents of their wild ancestors, and although the genetic distance between the cultivated and wild varieties is increased by the effects of human selection and the population bottleneck accompanying domestication, it is still necessary to type as many variable loci as possible to conduct meaningful studies of agricultural origins.Although wild grapes were probably present in many places in Europe during the Neolithic period, archaeological and historical evidences suggest that primo-domestication occurred in the Near East.