Evaluation of genetic variation in some Iranian and foreign cultivars and promising genotypes of Olive using ISSR markers

Olive is considered one of the most significant crops, with more than 1200 distinctive cultivars and an abundant number of wild forms. In this study, the genetic diversity in a set of Iranian and foreign olive cultivar was evaluated using ISSR primers. Using 16 ISSR primers, a total of 190 bands amplified, which out of 172 were polymorphic. The average of resolving power (Rp) and polymorphic information content (PIC ) was 10.22 and 0.45, respectively, hence this indicating the high efficiency of these primers to further genetic diversity assay. The results of analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed 7% of the total genetic diversity refer to among groups, while 93% of the total variation was found within groups. The average percentage polymorphic loci (PPL), number of observed (Na) and effective (Ne) alleles, Shannon’s information index (I), and gene diversity (H) are 82.11%, 1.73, 1.43, 0.39 and 0.26, respectively, and Iranian cultivars showed higher amounts of all parameters than foreign cultivars. Genetic relationships inferred from a neighbor-joining dendrogram clustered cultivars into main three groups. This grouping pattern was matched with the groups obtained by principal coordinate analysis (PCoA). Taken together, the results obtained from this study indicate the ISSR primers used in this work will be useful for genetic diversity and phylogenetic studies in the olive cultivars. Hence, the use of these primers in other genetic studies like QTL and association mapping are recommended.