Full Length Research Paper

Molecular analysis of genetic diversity in olive cultivars

Azmat Ali Awan¹*, Muhammad Zubair¹, Aqib Iqbal², Sayed Jaffar Abbas³ and Naushad Ali⁴

¹Horticulture Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Agriculture University, Peshawar, Pakistan.

²Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Agriculture University, Peshawar, Pakistan.

³Biotechnology Center, Agriculture Research Institute, Tarnab, Peshawar, Pakistan.

⁴Plant Breeding Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Agriculture University, Peshawar, Pakistan.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: azmat203@yahoo.com.

Accepted 9 August, 2011

 Abstract

The present study was conducted to study the genetic diversity in the available cultivars of olive flora in Pakistan. On an average, 15.5 alleles were amplified using Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) molecular primers. Mean genetic distance estimates ranged from 0.158 to 0.512 (G.D = 15.8 to 51.2%). Size of scorable fragments ranged from approximately 250 to >2000 bp. A high level of genetic dissimilarity (GD= up to 51%) was recorded among Ferugenia genotype only. Entries were grouped in clusters using cluster analysis. On the basis of dendrogram, most diverse genotypes Ferugenia and Coratina were identified, that can be used in future olive propagation program.

Key words: Olive, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) molecular primers, genetic diversity, Pakistan.