GENETIC DIVERSITY AMONG OLIVE GENOTYPES FROM MERSIN PROVINCE OF TURKEY REVEALED BY SSR MARKERS

Olive has been growing in Anatolia for 6000 years and gives peace, health and beauty to this land. Our objectives were to (1) investigate the level of genetic diversity among olive genotypes grown in Mersin and (2) assess their genetic structures by applying simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Forty olive genotypes sampled in Mersin province in Turkey were genotyped using 10 SSR loci. All of the genotypes studied could unequivocally be distinguished with the combination of the SSRs used. In total, 111 SSR alleles were identified, with a mean of 11.1 alleles per locus. The results showed that the number of alleles per locus range from 4 (UDO4) to 18 (DCA11) presenting high polymorphism. There were no identical cultivars. High similarity was shown by cultivars Mutt and camhyayla2 (0.70). The most genetically divergent cultivars were Mut8-Domat (0.10) and Mutl-Hojibalanca (0.15) was also identified. The variability detected using SSR markers could potentially contribute towards effective utilization of the genotypes for the exploitation of heterosis and formation of genetically diverse source populations in Turkish olive improvement programmes.