Olive-Tree Genome Sequencing: Towards a Better Understanding of Oil Biosynthesis

Whole genome scanning of a Mediterranean basin hotspot collection provides new insights into olive tree biodiversity and biology

“…Moreover, olive tree research and breeding have been limited by factors such as the time‐consuming process of constructing cross populations for genetic mapping, the long juvenile phase, and the high levels of heterozygosity (Rugini et al., 2016). Therefore, the recovery of genetic diversity and the identification of genetic regions of olive tree associated with important agronomic traits linked to phenology, yield, and quality of the oil have become fundamental, notably in the context of the growing environmental impact of climate change (Aydin et al., 2021; Skodra et al., 2021).…”

“…The availability of whole genome assemblies and annotations of olive tree cultivars and oleasters (Barghini et al., 2014; Cruz et al., 2016; Jiménez‐Ruiz et al., 2020; Rao et al., 2021; Unver et al., 2017) and the discovery of high‐throughput resequencing technologies (Kersey, 2019) have contributed to a better understanding of genetic and genomic differences among olive tree cultivars (Aydin et al., 2021; Vatansever et al., 2022). The olive tree is a complex example of the domestication of fruit trees (Besnard et al., 2018); particularly the origins and genetic background of domestication‐related phenotypic changes remain debatable (Gros‐Balthazard et al., 2019).…”