Intra-Genetic Variation within Olive Cultivar 'Nabali' in Palestine by Microsatellite and Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA

ABSTRACT: Over seventy olive trees (Nabali) from different regions in Palestine were used in this study. Intra-genetic variation within different olive Nabali variants were approved by SSR and RAPD markers. Four SSRs bands were monomorphic revealing a true-to-genotype of Nabali cultivar. Ten RAPD markers produced 60 reproducible bands with an average of 6 bands / marker. Only 24 were polymorphic. The percentage of polymorphic bands was 38% which is relatively high. Similarity matrix for studied populations ranged from moderate (0.610) for Jalkamous and Karawa Bani Zaid (2) to highly genetic similarity or even identity (1.000) in some cases as Aqraba and Aseerah (N). The interaction between different variants trends to be high. The effect of geographic location was absent in this study and has no significant contribution. Dendogram based on Jaccards coffiecnt revealed three main clusters, the biggest group consisted of the majority of variants including Bieta, Karawa Bani Zaid (1), Salfeet, Salfeet (h), Aqraba, Aseereh (N), Jalkamous, and Alaroub. Second group consisted of two variants Alaar and Nahaleen. The third group is containing only Karawa Bani Zaid (2). The relative high polymorphic bands of RAPD markers (40%) and moderate genetic similarity among different Nabali variants suggested attribution of genetic background. Selection for new traits within Nabali is suggested