Identification of Olea europaea L. cultivars using inter-simple sequence repeat markers

Two inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers (one UBC-818, rich in CA and the other UBC-849, rich in GT) were used for the differentiation of 31 Olea europaea L. cultivars grown in Greece. Amplification products were visualized using the silver staining technique. Genetic similarities were calculated using the Jaccard similarity coefficient. The resulting similarity matrix was subjected to the UPGMA clustering method for dendrogram construction and cultivar differentiation. Both ISSR primers showed high degrees of polymorphism. Primer UBC-818 yielded more bands (51) than UBC-849 (33) and helped in uniquely identifying all 31 cultivars while the UBC-849 primer led to the identification of only 27. The present results along with those of other researchers show that ISSRs can be used for cultivar differentiation in O. europaea L.