Molecular Characterization of Local and Imported Olive Cultivars Grown in Egypt Using ISSR Technique

Abstract

2 Abstract: Olive Olea europaea L. is one of the most economically important crops in the Mediterranean area and known for having large genetic variability. Consequently, genetic variation among 22 olive cultivars (Twelve local cultivars grown in Egypt and ten foreign cultivars) was assessed using inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) markers. Ten (ISSRs) primers amplified 71 fragments of which 38 were polymorphic. The number of polymorphic bands per primer varied from 4 to 10 with 7.1 bands per primer on average. Genetic similarities were calculated using the Jaccard similarity coefficient. The resulting similarity matrix was subjected to the UPGMA clustering method for dendrogram construction and cultivar differentiation. Our results indicate that ISSR can be useful for genetic diversity studies, to provide practical information for parental selection and to assist breeding and conservation strategies Also, the present results along with those of other researchers show that ISSRs can be used for cultivar differentiation in Olea europaea L.