Assessment of genetic diversity among Algerian olive (Olea europaea L.) cultivars using SSR marker.

• This study is the first attempts at detailed Algerian olive genotyping by SSR.
• Genetic diversity among and between cultivars was revealed by using 11 SSR markers.
• The genetic relationship among the 26 Algerian cultivars revealed a homonymy case.
• A set of discriminant SSR primer pairs is proposed for large-scale genotyping.
• The information obtained can help to assist the management of an olive collection.

In this study, molecular analyses of olive trees, sampled from different regions, were performed using nuclear microsatellites markers to assess genetic diversity in Algerian cultivated olive, Oleaeuropaea L. In total, 11 preselected polymorphic microsatellites markers were used on a set of 26 Algerian olive cultivars to study the genetic relationship among and within these cultivars. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 6 to 21, with a mean of 11 alleles. Sixty-one unique allelic patterns were observed. The observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.135 to 0.889, while the expected heterozygosity (He) varied from 0.07 to 0.51. For each studied marker, both high genetic variability and discrimination efficiency between genotypes were observed. The microsatellites genotyping allowed unambiguous identification of all the cultivars; a combination of 3 microsatellites markers was sufficient to discriminate 20 olive cultivars. In total, 129 reproducible bands were generated and the cultivars were clustered into nine groups. Homonyms were identified by allele differences between accessions of the same denomination. The information obtained from this study sheds some light on the origin of Algerian olive cultivars.