Molecular Biology and Genetics
Electronic Journal of Biotechnology ISSN: 0717-3458 Vol. 9 No. 5, Issue of October 15, 2006
© 2006 by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso -- Chile Received April 5, 2006 / Accepted May 23, 2006
DOI: 10.2225/vol9-issue5-fulltext-12  
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Agronomic and molecular analyses for the characterisation of accessions in Tunisian olive germplasm collections

Wael Taamalli
 Laboratoire Caractérisation et Qualité de l’Huile d’Olive
Centre de Biotechnologie
Technopole de Borj Cedria
BP 901, 2050, Hammam-Lif, Tunisia
Tel: 216 71 855430
Fax: 216 71 855934
E-mail: taamalli.wael@cbbc.rnrt.tn 

Filippo Geuna
 Dipartimento di Produzione Vegetale
Università degli Studi di Milano
Via Celoria 2, 20133, Milano, Italy
Tel: 39 02 50316550
Fax: 39 02 50316553
E-mail: filippo.geuna@unimi.it

Riccardo Banfi
 Dipartimento di Produzione Vegetale
Università degli Studi di Milano
Via Celoria 2, 20133, Milano, Italy
Tel: 39 02 50316550
Fax: 39 02 50316553
E-mail: riccardo.anfi@unimi.it

Daniele Bassi
 Dipartimento di Produzione Vegetale
Università degli Studi di Milano
Via Celoria 2, 20133, Milano, Italy
Tel: 39 02 50316550
Fax: 39 02 50316553
E-mail: daniele.bassi@unimi.it

Douja Daoud
 Laboratoire Caractérisation et Qualité de l’Huile d’Olive
Centre de Biotechnologie
Technopole de Borj Cedria
BP 901, 2050, Hammam-Lif, Tunisia
Tel: 216 71 855430
Fax: 216 71 855934
E-mail: douja.daoud@cbbc.rnrt.tn

Mokhtar Zarrouk*
 Laboratoire Caractérisation et Qualité de l’Huile d’Olive
Centre de Biotechnologie
Technopole de Borj Cedria
BP 901, 2050, Hammam-Lif, Tunisia
Tel: 216 71 855430
Fax: 216 71 855934
E-mail: mokhtar.zarrouk@cbbc.rnrt.tn

*Corresponding author

Financial support: The present work has been done in the framework of a research programme (2002-2005) funded by the Tunisian Ministry of Science Research, Technology and Competency Development.

Keywords: agronomic traits, AFLP, Olea europaea, SSR.

Abbreviations:

AFLP: amplified fragment length polymorphisms
ISSR: intermicrosatellites
PCA: perform principal component
PCoA: principal coordinates analysis
SSR: microsatellites
UPGMA: unweighted pair group method based on arithmetic averages
Abstract
Full Text

In this study, a total of 14 agronomic traits, five AFLP primer combinations and ten SSR loci were used to describe and to classify a group of Tunisian olive genotypes into groups based on molecular profiles and agronomic traits. The analysis of variance of the agronomical data revealed significant differences among accessions for all measured traits. The mean phenotypic dissimilarity (0.34 with a range of 0.08-0.6) was low in comparison to dissimilarity calculated using AFLP (0.50 with a range of 0.16-0.70) and SSR markers (0.76 with a range 0.35-0.94). The correlation between the agronomical dissimilarity matrix and the matrices of genetic dissimilarity based on SSR and AFLP markers was very weak: 0.156 (p = 0.05) and 0.185 (p = 0.05), respectively. The SSR-AFLP dendrogram based on unweighted pair-group cluster analysis using Jaccard’s index revealed that the genetic diversity was predominantly structured according to fruit size. A trend of clustering together of accessions originating from the same or adjacent regions was also observed. The data obtained can be used for the varietal survey and construction of a database of all olive varieties grown in Tunisia and providing also additional information that could form the basis for the rational design of breeding programs.
Supported by UNESCO / MIRCEN network
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