EVALUATION OF THE GENETIC DIVERSITY OF THE OLIVE COLLECTION (INTA SAN JUAN, ARGENTINA) BY MORPHOLOGICAL AND MICROSATELLITE MARKERS

CIBELES CONTRERAS; LUCIANA GENTILI; ROBERTO MARIOTTI; NICOLÒ CULTRERA; LUCIANA BALDONI; MOUSAVI SORAYA; PIERLUIGI PIERANTOZZI; DAMIÁN MAESTRI; MARIELA TORRES

Merlo

Simposio; XXXV Reunión Científica Anual de la Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo; 2017

The principal problem of collections is the correctidentification of existing material, as well as that of new entries. Thecorrect identification is crucial to achieve the goals of genetic improvementprograms by crossbreeding as well as to identify varieties in nursery plants.The present work was carried out at INTA-EEA-San Juan-Argentina, which has agermplasm bank with 38 olive cultivars. The morphological and molecularcharacterization of 12 olive cultivars, destined mainly for oil production, wascarried out. For this purpose, 6 morphological descriptors and 6 microsatellitemarkers were used. Total DNA was extracted from young leaves using theGeneElute Plant Genomic DNA Miniprep Kit (SIGMA). Subsequently, amplificationwas performed by PCR using those microsatellites. The morphological andmolecular data obtained were compared with the "OLEA databases"database and that the CNR-IBBR Institute (Perugia, Italy), respectively.The results (morphological and molecular) indicateda correct identification of the cultivars ´Arbequina´, ´Blanqueta´, ´Empeltre´,´Leccino´ and ´Maurino´. On the other hand, it was verified that some cultivarswere not well identified, thus determining the following correspondences:´Grappollo´ with ´Leccio del Corno´; ´Manzanilla´ with ´Racioppa lucana´;´Dritta´ with ´Frantoio´; and ´Carboncella´ with ´Canino´. Finally threecultivars, according to the molecular data, do not correspond to the genotypesof the reference database, while the morphological analysis agrees with thereference data for these cultivars. It is expected that the knowledge and finalevaluation of such genetic diversity will allow an optimal management of thecollection and implementation of future breeding programs in the crop.