Characterisation and identification of olive cultivars from North-eastern Algeria using molecular markers

SummaryIn the present study, ten microsatellite (simple sequence repeat; SSR) and seven single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were used to characterise a set of 14 cultivars of olive (Olea europaea L.) from North-eastern Algeria. The genetic profiles of these cultivars were compared with two Tunisian, one Moroccan, and two Algerian cultivars. A total of 77 alleles were amplified for the SSR markers. The mean values of the expected heterozygosity (He), the observed heterozygosity (Ho), and the polymorphic information content (PIC) values were 0.806, 0.851, and 0.752, respectively. A combination of three SSR loci (ssrOeUA-DCA9, ssrOeUA-DCA18, and UDO099-043) permitted the identification of all 14 olive accessions analysed. Although less polymorphic than the SSR markers, the SNP markers used in this study showed relatively high diversity values. The mean He value was 0.374. The same value was obtained for the Ho, and PIC values ranged from 0.373 (Cycl-1) to 0.117 (LS2). Eleven out of all 19 olive cultivars (63%) were identified by means of the SNP markers, confirming the value of the differences from SSR markers in terms of their efficiency for cultivar discrimination and stressing the need to develop more SNP markers. The results obtained in this work highlight the rich genetic diversity available in even a small set of olive germplasm from Algeria and confirm the utility of SSR and SNP markers for genotyping olive cultivars.