Morphological and molecular analyses for the characterization of Iranian olives (Olea europaea L.) in Kermanshah province

Abstract

In the present study, we evaluated genetic diversity between seventy one samples of olive (Olea europaea L.) germplasms (40 accessions, 5 Iranian cultivars and 26 foreign cultivars) growing in Kermanshah province by Morphological, RAPD and ISSR markers. Morphological characters were compared to the molecular data obtained using RAPD and ISSR markers. Thirty-four RAPD primers and 8 ISSR primers amplified 412 and 118 polymorphic fragments, respectively. The dendrograms based on UPGMA cluster analysis using Jaccard's similarity index for RAPD, ISSR markers and combined both markers include 7, 5 and 7 groups, respectively. The results of mantel's test indicated significant correlation between grouping obtained by RAPD and ISSR markers (r=0.493) and also between morphological and molecular markers. The morphological and molecular data led to similar representations of the cultivar relationships. The results indicated not a relationship between genetic diversity and different geographical regions in Kermanshah Province. This suggests that cultivar selection has occurred in different genetic pools and in different areas. The results of these analyses showed the existence of a genetic divergence between accessions and this diversity can be used in olive breeding programs. This study allowed us to analyze genetic diversity for further prospecting, to provide additional genetic information on the agronomic and quality characteristics of the olive varieties, and for introducing new olive accessions.