The object of this study was to detect genetic similarities
and distances between cultivated Manzanilla and wild type
olives by random amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase
chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) technique. In this study, the
cultivated type olive Manzanilla was supplied from Olive
Research Institute of Turkey and the wild type olives from
the villages of Manisa, Izmir and Mugla provinces. Genomic
DNA’s were extracted from young leaves and PCR was used to
generate RAPD bands. Sixty random primers obtained from
Operon technology were tested by RAPD-PCR (OP-A, OP-I,
OP-Q). Thirty of 60 primers used in the study provided 150
considerably polymorphic bands and the average number of
bands was defined as 5. Comparisons of cultivated and wild
type olives are important for understanding genetic
relation. It was determined that the genetic distance values
varied between 0.0665 and 0.2863 and genetic similarity
values varied between 0.9356 and 0.7511. It was observed
that the samples most close to each other were wild 8 and
wild 3 and the samples most distant from each other were
wild 5 and Manzanilla, in accordance with such genetic
distance and similarity values.