Phylogenetic Relationships Among Olea Species, Based on Nucleotide Variation at a Non‐Coding Chloroplast DNA Region

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess nucleotide variation at a non‐coding chloroplast DNA region in Olea species, to evaluate their phylogenetic relationships within the Olea genus and, more particularly, to clarify the relationships between cultivated olive (O. europaea) and the other taxa of section Olea. The analysis was made on an intergenic region between the trnT(UGU) and trnL(UAA) 5′ exon, within a large single copy region of the chloroplast genome. Site‐specific primers were used to amplify the region by PCR. This sequence analysis was applied to the same array of Olea species as assayed by Lumaret et al. (2000[16]) using cpDNA RFLPs, thus making it possible to compare phylogenetic relationships analysed at two complementary levels of cpDNA variation. On the 666 bp aligned sequence, 8 different haplotypes were defined, with 9 single nucleotide mutations, a different length of a poly‐T region and an indel for O. paniculata. Haplotypes were shared by the species pairs O. europaea‐O.laperrinei, O. maroccana‐O. cerasiformis, O. capensis‐O. lancea and O. africana‐O.indica. Phylogenetic analyses of these data distinguished four groups: the species Olea capensis and O. lancea, which both belong to subgenus Ligustroides, the Olea forms from southeast Africa, those from Asia and the taxa of northwest Africa and the Mediterranean Basin, which include olive crop. The results are consistent with those previously found using cpDNA RFLPs, with some minor differences observed within each group. They constitute further evidence to clarify the phylogeny of Olea.

Ancient olive DNA in pits: preservation, amplification and sequence analysis

“…We describe here the amplification of a 109-bp segment of the TrnT-TrnL chloroplast spacer. This region is conserved in the different genetic lines of O. europaea [3]. The amplification was performed in the qPCR instrument, and was stopped as soon as a product began accumulating.…”

Plastid and nuclear DNA polymorphism reveals historical processes of isolation and reticulation in the olive tree complex (Olea europaea)

“…Cytoplasmic DNA polymorphism was used to evaluate the origin of wild Mediterranean and cultivated olives (Besnard et al. , 2000, 2002; Vargas & Kadereit, 2001; Baldoni et al. , 2002).…”

“…Restricted sampling in previous studies (Vargas & Kadereit, 2001; Baldoni et al. , 2002; Besnard et al.…”

Local old olive landrace varieties in Israel—Valuable plant genetic resources in olive cultivation

“…The increasing demand for olive oil has led to the modernization of olive cultivation worldwide. Considerable effort has been put into elucidating phylogenetic relationships of the cultivated olive within the O. europaea complex (Besnard et al, 2002a), and different molecular approaches have been used within some of its components (Angiolillo et al, 1999;Besnard and Berville, 2000;Hess et al, 2000;Vargas and Kadereit, 2001;Baldoni et al, 2002;Besnard and Berville, 2002;Contento et al, 2002;Besnard et al, 2002bBesnard et al, , 2002cde Casas et al, 2006;Besnard et al, 2007). Consequently, traditional cultivars, representing local landraces that originated during the long history of olive cultivation in Israel, are being partially neglected.…”