title: Genetic diversity among accessions of an ancient olive variety of Cyprus.
abstract: To evaluate germplasm variability and to discriminate between accessions of 'Ladolia', an ancient olive variety of Cyprus, different accessions from a germplasm collection were screened with 11 selected oligonucleotide primers in RAPD-PCRs. A total of 49 polymorphic markers were scored, the combination of which resulted in 70 distinct electrophoretic patterns. Based on either unique or combined patterns, all accessions were identified. Seven genotype-specific markers were detected. One RAPD marker could distinguish accessions according to fruit size. Genetic similarities between accessions, estimated using the Dice similarity coefficient, indicated a high degree of genetic diversity among 'Ladolia' accessions. Genetic relationships were estimated by the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averaging (UPGMA) and principal components analysis (PCA). Three main groups of accessions were detected. The first group was generally composed of accessions with small-sized fruits and could be further divided into two subgroups. According to PCA, most accessions with medium- or large-sized fruits were clustered together. Our results support previous observations suggesting that 'Ladolia' is actually a highly variable mixture of genetically distinct landraces.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biology Laboratory, Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos 75, 11855 Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Banilas
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Minas
authors.forename: Costas
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gregoriou
authors.forename: Cathrine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Demoliou
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kourti
authors.forename: Polydefkis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hatzopoulos
mesh_terms: D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003535:Cyprus; D017931:DNA Primers; D005638:Fruit / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005843:Geography; D031658:Olea / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics*; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers