New accessions of Italian table olives (Olea europaea): Characterization of genotypes and quality of brined products

• Four new olive hybrids were obtained from Sicilian high value cultivars.
• The phenological stages of the new hybrids allow a long period of commercialization.
• The olive plants were genotyped and clustered in two main groups.
• The fermentation process of new olive accessions was investigated.
• The sensory profiles of the new hybrids were defined.

Four new accessions were obtained by crossing some Sicilian high value cultivars (‘Buscionetto’, ‘Nocellara del Belice’, ‘Nocellara Messinese’ and ‘Tonda Dolce’). The olives were harvested at the green stage and characterized through the evaluation of agronomic and morphological parameters. The DNA was extracted from young leaves of the obtained hybrids and genotyped at 9 nuclear microsatellite loci. The olives were directly brined in order to test the quality of the fermented products. The results of genetic variability clustered all the analyzed samples in two main groups. The carpological parameters of the new hybrids revealed that they are very suitable for table olives. The phenological stages of the new hybrids allow a longer period of commercialization compared to the reference varieties because the ‘C’, ‘E’ and ‘B’ hybrids showed a substantial ripening period advance. The sensory profiles of ‘A’ and ‘C’ hybrids were quite similar, while the other two ones showed different sensory results.

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