Polymorphism Of Microsatellite (SSR) Markers In Tunisian Olive (Olea Europaea L.) Cultivars

Olive (Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea var. europaea) is one of the oldest fruit tree in the Mediterranean basin, and is cultivated for oil and canned fruit. Part of this interest is driven by the economic importance of olive oil which is increasing throughout the world due to its beneficial effect to human health. In Tunisia, olive has great socio-economic importance, with more than 60 millions olive trees cultivated for olive oil production including a wide range of cultivars which are widely extended from the north to the south regions of the country for its high economic value. Here, we applied microsatellites (SSRs) molecular markers to assess the genetic variability of the most important Tunisian olive variety cultivated in Southeastern Tunisia. In total, the 7 simple sequence repeats (SSR) loci revealed 54 alleles with a mean number of 7.714 alleles per locus were detected. The observed heterosigosity ranged from 0 at DCA5 to 1 at DCA3, while the expected heterosigosity varied between 0.408 and 0.905 respectively at GAPU71A and UDO39. The UPGMA cluster analyses using Jaccard’s index permitted a segregation of the sixteen olive cultivars in six main groups and revealed that no clear clustering trends were observed according to their geographic origin. Keywords— Olea europaea, genetic diversity, microsatellite, genetic relationships