An Analysis Of The Genetic Diversity And Relationship Of The Olive Cultivars From Guangdong Province Of China

Chinese olive (Canarium album Raeusch) also called as Chinese white olive or Chinese yellow olive, belonging to the genus Canarium L. of Burseraceae family, is a famous subtropical fruit in South China, and has important economic and medicinal values. A huge amount of Chinese olive cultivars were recorded in existing literature after a long-term natural selection and cultivation. Guangdong Province is the main cultivation area of Chinese olive and is rich in the genetic resources. Previous studies concerning the Chinese olive germplasm were mainly about variety collection, morphological character observation and physiological analysis of the fruits. The cultivar exchange between different cultivation regions and long-term reproduction have made the genetic relationship of Chinese olive very complex, and this caused the problems in germplasm collection, conservation, utilization and parentage identification of C. album. Therefore, a systematic study of the genetic diversity and relationship of olive cultivars at DNA molecular level is needed.In the present study, a stable Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) experimental system was established and used to study the genetic diversity and relationship of 63 Chinese olive cultivars collected in Guangdong province of China. The main results obtained were as the following:1. An AFLP analysis system suitable for C. album was established after systematically optimizing the factors that affect the experimental system of AFLP techniques.2. From the 64 pairs of the AFLP primer combinations screened, six (E/AAC-M/CAT, E/AAC-M/CTT,E/ACA-M/CAA, E/AGG-M/CAA, E/ACC-M/CAA, E/ACT-M/CAT), which produced clear and reliable polymorphic bands, were selected and used in the analysis of 63 Chinese olive cultivars.417 amplification bands were produced, and all of the bands were polymorphic (a 100% polymorphic rate). This indicated that there is rich genetic diversity in Chinese olive germplasm.3. The genetic relationship of the 63 Chinese olive cultivars was analyzed using software NTSYSpc-2.10a, and a UPGMA tree was established. According to the tree, the Chinese olive samples studied can be divided into 7 groups. No relationships were found between the groups and their geographical origins.