MOLECULAR STUDIES IN OLIVE: A REVIEW ON GENETICS AND GENOMICS DEVELOPMENTS IN OLEA EUROPAEA L

Ermira HODO JAHJA, Melaize YZEIRAJ

Abstract

The olive tree (Olea europaea L.) is amongst the most widely cultivated crops in the Mediterranean Basin, presenting a major economic importance for the region. The identification process of olive trees used to be performed based on morphological markers, meanwhile during the last three decades molecular markers used in olive culture, have rapidly evolved and are already applied for various purposes. The usage of molecular markers is primarily related to genetic diversity and phylogenetic analysis, owing to their validity, stability, and simple usage. In addition, molecular studies in olive are also being applied for genome mapping, gene expression, inheritance patterns, and marker-assisted selection. Numerous techniques have been constantly developed and employed in olive studies, nevertheless, a handful of them have received positive outcomes. The recent advances in DNA sequencing, ESTs, and SNPs, as well as traditional DNA markers (e.g. RAPDs, AFLPs, ISSRs, and SSRs), have led to high throughput analyses of olive cultivars. Modern functional markers and transcriptomics will have a great impact and are expected to accelerate further progress in taxonomy, olive variety identification, genetic map construction, conservation strategies, and olive breeding. In this review we introduce the most relevant molecular markers, applied in the olive tree and discuss the recent techniques, focusing on utilization of each approach.

Pages: 93 - 103