Genetic Diversity of Major Greek Olive Cultivars Using Molecular (AFLPs and RAPDs) Markers and Morphological Traits

Abstract

<jats:p>The aim of the present study was to develop a reliable reference database to discriminate between the major Greek olive (<jats:italic>Olea europaea</jats:italic> L.) cultivars and reveal their genetic relationships, since Greece is considered a secondary center of diversity. In order to establish genetic relationships among the 26 Greek and eight international cultivars, four amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) primer pairs, 12 randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers, along with measurements from 10 morphological traits, were used. A total of 576 AFLP and 113 RAPD markers were produced. Genetic similarities, estimated using the Jaccard algorithim, ranged from 0.45 to 0.83 for the AFLP data and 0.27 to 0.87 for the RAPD data. The cophenetic correlation coefficients between the genetic similarities and the unweighted pair group method of arithmetic averages (UPGMA) phenograms were 0.77 for the AFLPs, 0.81 for the RAPDs, and 0.69 for the morphological traits. However, limited clustering similarities among the phenograms derived from the three methods were observed. This was also reflected by the low correlation between the three genetic similarity matrices produced (AFLP and RAPD, <jats:italic>r</jats:italic> = 0.39; AFLP and morphological traits, <jats:italic>r</jats:italic> = 0.11; RAPD and morphological traits, <jats:italic>r</jats:italic> = 0.02). According to the molecular results, olive cultivars are clustered according to fruit size but not according to geographical origin. Three of the cultivars tested, `Vasilicada,' `Throumbolia', and `Lianolia Kerkiras', were found to branch distantly to the others, according to the AFLP results, and can be considered as ancient Greek cultivars.</jats:p>

Genetic diversity and clonal variation within the main Sicilian olive cultivars based on morphological traits and microsatellite markers

“…'Moresca 10' and 'Giarraffa 3' could represent further cases of erroneous attribution of the name, although they are genetically close to the 'Giarraffa' group, while, 'Nocellara Belice 1' may be a sibling of 'Nocellara Belice STD' and 'Giarraffa STD', which shared morphological similarity with the latter cultivar. The integration of different statistical methods applied to the analysis of morphological and molecular data does not always permit the same conclusions to be reached about the relationships between the cultivars and clones even within the same gene pool (Belaj et al, 2003;Hagidimitriou et al, 2005). From our results, it seemed clear that the combination of the CDA with the cluster analysis of the molecular profiles is the most appropriate and reliable way to study relations among polyclonal cultivars and cultivar-populations and thus to verify intra-cultivar diversity.…”

The main Croatian olive cultivar, ‘Oblica’, shows high morphological but low molecular diversity

“…No correlation was found between the matrices generated from the AFLP or morphological data, nor between the matrices of AFLP-based distance and geographical distance between pairs of samples. In the case of the major Greek olive cultivars (Hagidimitriou et al, 2005), clustering was according to fruit size, not according to geographical origin. The same researchers found a low correlation between the matrices based on AFLP markers and morphological traits (r = 0.11).…”

Physicochemical Characteristics and Antioxidant Potential of the Greek PDO and PGI Virgin Olive Oils (VOOs)

“…Other names of this cultivar are Galani and Prasinolia. [10,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] Data show that Koroneiki the main Greek cultivar, participated in 23 out of 30 PDO/PGI VOOs, has been extensively studied regarding its DNA fingerprint. It is a double use cultivar, which ripens in November.…”