Microsatellite Markers for Characterization and Identification of Olive (Olea europaea) Cultivars in South Italy

Olive (Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea) is a species of great economic importance in the Mediterranean basin. Italy occupies a very important place in the olive industry. The olive genetic patrimony in this country is very rich and is characterized by the abundance of cultivars (over 650 cultivars and over 1300 synonyms), most of them landraces vegetatively propagated at the farm level since ancient times. It is also likely that this number is underestimated because of inadequate information on minor local cultivars that are widespread in different olive growing areas. The existence of many cultivars maintained by vegetative propagation reinforces the need of a reliable identification of cultivars. In this work we used SSR molecular markers to characterize about 200 cultivars in South Italy. The olive trees were genotyped using 9 published SSRs: GAPU59, GAPU71A, GAPU71B, GAPU103A, UDO01, UDO03, UDO12, UDO28 and UDO39. Characterization and identification of olive cultivars is very important to avoid genotype redundancy in order to maximise genetic diversity in Italian olive germplasm collection.