Molecular characterization of indigenous olive genotypes based on SSR analysis

Trees of 25 widely grown olive genotypes were analyzed using a set of 10 SSR (simple sequence repeat) primer pairs and to evaluate genetic diversity and reveal inter-cultivar relationships. Two well-known international olive cultivars (Chetoni and Manzanilla) and four widely grown Turkish standard cultivars (Aycalik, Edincik Su, Gemlik, Kilis Yaglik) are also included in the study to compare Kilis genotypes. The 10 polymorphic SSR loci exhibited 4 (UDO4) to 17 alleles (UDO43), with expected heterozygozity (He) ranging from 0.510 to 0.887 and a mean of 0.692 presenting high polymorphism. In this study we did not determine identical genotypes and Polateli4 and Kilis Yağlık (0.75), Polateli3 and Polateli7 (0.75) and Polateli6 and Manzanilla (0.70) revealed the highest similarity ratio each other. The most genetically divergent cultivars were Elbeyli8 and Musabeyli5 (0.10); Elbeyli3 and Musabeyli7 (0.15) and Musabeyli6 and Elbeyli7 (0.15), respectively