Morphological and microsatellite analysis of the ancient Montenegrin olive variety ‘Žutica’ revealed different clones

Abstract

<p>The ‘Žutica’ represents the most common Montenegrin olive varieties mainly used for the production of olive oil and green and black fruit canning. Traditionally, the olive plants have been propagated vegetatively, and a small level of genetic polymorphism is expected among clones of the same variety. This topic was only partially studied in the Montenegrin olive ‘Žutica’. Therefore, this study aimed to determine intra-varietal genetic variability in twenty-three ‘Žutica’ trees selected in situ, analyzing the variability of morphological traits and microsatellites. The Principal Component Analyses (PCA) with six axes explains the total cumulative variance of 91.3 %, with fruit and endocarp traits in the first three PC. The unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean of twenty morphological traits grouped ‘Žutica’ trees into two clusters and five independent trees. Nine microsatellite primers amplified 31 fragments of which 22 were polymorphic and enabled the detection of nine different microsatellite profiles (potential different clones). A comparison of dendrogram groups based on morphological and microsatellite markers showed low cophenetic values in the determination of intra-varietal variability. The results showed that the old variety ‘Žutica’, from a relatively small geographic region, has a variable genetic base, which could be used in the selection of superior clones.</p>