Dramatic advances in techniques for handling and analyzing nucleic acids have taken place in recent years. One such advance has been the development of different kinds of molecular markers such as RFLPs, RAPDs or VNTRs useful for a variety of purposes in plant breeding. Although there is potentially a great practical value in the use of DNA markers in perennial fruit‑crop species, mainly because of their long generation time, such markers have been most extensively used in annual plant species. As a consequence, molecular studies in most fruit‑crop species are in their early stages. In this review, the main DNA markers currently available are described and the results so far obtained in fruit‑tree crops are discussed.