Application of the RAPD technique and morphological characteristics in cultivated olives (Olea europaea sativa)

Five different morphological characteristics (width, length, width/length, stem length, stem thickness) were considered in 18 cultivated olives and discriminant analysis was applied. Using primers OP- I (1 - 20) and OP- Z (7, 8, 9, 10 and 11) in the same olives, evaluable bands were obtained from 12 primers out of 25. PCR analysis was repeated twice and those providing stable bands in the end of both analyses were evaluated. Genetic distances of cultivated olives were determined using neighbor-joining (Mega 4.1 program) method. SPSS 15.0 package program was used in the evaluation of morphological data of plants with the discriminant analysis; and in accordance with the discriminant results, while accurate estimations were made among the groups in olives, there had been misclassified estimations in some of them. The purpose of study is to determine the genetic distances of cultivated olives which economically important by applying Neighbor-joining method with the data obtained using RAPD analysis; and to classify the some morphological characteristics of same olives with the discriminant analysis.