Use of DArT markers as a means of better management of the diversity of olive cultivars

• Published in: Food research international 2013-12, Vol.54 (2), p.2045-2053
• Main Authors: Atienza, Sergio G., de la Rosa, Raúl, Domínguez-García, María C., Martín, Antonio, Kilian, Andrzej, Belaj, Angjelina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arrays; Collection; Genetic relationships; Genetic resources; Genetics; Germplasm collections; Management; Markers; Olea europaea L; Olives; Redundancy; Similarity
• ISSN: 0963-9969; 1873-7145
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2013.08.015

DArT (Diversity Array Technology) markers assessed in a large set of olive cultivars have been used to evaluate their utility for the management of the World Olive Germplasm Bank (WOGB—Córdoba) of IFAPA Centre “Alameda del Obispo” Córdoba (Spain). The coefficient of similarity of Kulczynsky (K1), which calculates the ratio between common markers relative to the number of unique markers (range 0 to ∞), was used for such purpose. Low K1 values (lower than 3.61) were obtained for the majority of the pair of cultivars (99.80% of the total). Low and similar ranges of K1 values were also found in both a seedling progeny of ‘Picual’בArbequina’ and a set of wild olives included in the study. These results may suggest that most of the WOGB—Córdoba cultivars studied probably were derived from outcrossing events. As expected, low similarity values were found among different cultivars with the same naming (homonyms). On the contrary, a total of 105 pairs (0.20%) showed K1 values above 14.58, implying thus low genetic differentiation. These high K1 values suggest the presence of potential redundant germplasm in the collection which likely includes synonyms, accumulation of somatic mutations, redundancies from prospecting surveys, and planting errors. Thus, the genetic relationships revealed by DArT markers among cultivars are of great interest for management of olive collections and could be useful to increase the performance of future breeding programs by optimizing the choice of parents in combination with phenotypic information. Finally, the transferability of DArT markers to wild olives has been confirmed. •DArT markers are useful for management of olive cultivar collections and breeding.•DArT generated from cultivated olive has a high transference to oleaster accessions.•Sixty-eight varieties (21%) were very similar to at least another one from the WOGB.