Intraspecific olive diversity assessed with AFLP

Abstract

Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) was used to study diversity within and among Spanish olive varieties. A high degree of diversity was found among the varieties present in each growing region. Olive oil production and quality relies on appropriate cultivar selection as well as good orchard management. Production based only on a few superior cultivars would result in improved yield, oil quality, and production management. Amplified fragment length polymorphism were evaluated as a tool to identify the intraspecific and intravarietal diversity of olive. Amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis of 38 accessions belonging to 10 cultivars using six primer combinations produced 106 polymorphic bands. Results were analyzed for similarity among accessions via unweighted pair‐group means cluster analysis, resulting in 10 clusters corresponding to named variety designations. Similarity among varieties ranged from 0.60 to 0.72. Diversity within varieties was identified. Similarity within named varieties (accessions with the same varietal name) ranged from 0.75 to 0.96. Differences in several markers were found among 34 accessions. Intravarietal diversity was shown to exist within the Spanish olive varieties grown in the region surrounding Valencia.

Olive Oil Traceability

“…The verification of the cultivars employed to produce an olive oil sample may contribute to address the oil origin. This fact may have commercial interest in the case of monovarietal olive oils or olive oils with PDO because these high-quality olive oils may be adulterated by other oils of lower quality, using anonymous or less costly cultivars (Sanz-Cortes et al, 2003).…”

“…Nowadays, several efforts have been focused on the investigation of one or several compounds present in olive oils usable to differentiate olive varieties (Sanz-Cortes et al, 2003).…”

Traceability of Origin and Authenticity of Olive Oil

“…As the quality of an olive oil depends on the olive variety from which it is elaborated, the production of olive oils from certain varieties has increased (Sanz-Cortes et al, 2003). The olive variety selection is based on its adaptation to different climatic conditions and soils.…”

“…(Montealegre et al, 2010) Traditionally, differentiation among olive cultivars has been supported by numerous morphological (study of the form or shape) and pomological (the development, cultivation, and physiological studies of fruit trees) traits. Unfortunately, morphological traits have been difficult to evaluate, are affected by subjective interpretations, and are severely influenced by the environment and plant developmental stage (Sanz-Cortes et al, 2003). Nowadays, several efforts have been focused on the investigation of one or several compounds present in olive oils usable to differentiate olive varieties (Montealegre et al, 2010).…”

RAPD assay of wild-type olives in Turkey

“…However, DNA-based markers are not influenced by environmental conditions, and they allow direct scanning of the plant genome (MartinsLopes et al, 2007;Doveri et al, 2008). Genetic polymorphism of the plants can be detected by many different DNA-based marker methods such as RFLPs (Besnard and Berville, 2000), AFLPs (Sanz-Cortés et al, 2003;Owen et al, 2005), SSRs (Rallo et al, 2000;Cipriani et al, 2002;Belaj et al, 2004), ISSRs (Gemas et al, 2004), and random amplified polymorphic DNAs (RAPDs) (Belaj et al, 2001;Besnard et al, 2001;La Rosa et al, 2003;Wu et al, 2004;Ganino et al, 2007). Additionally, chloroplast and mitochondrial DNA analyses are helpful in examining the genetic structure of plants (Besnard et al, 2002).…”