Olive and oleaster (Olea europaea) in the Mediterranean

[MWP admin]

Olive and oleaster (Olea europaea) in the Mediterranean

Full Title:
Genetic diversity and gene flow between the wild olive (oleaster, Olea europaea L.) and the olive: several Plio-Pleistocene refuge zones in the Mediterranean basin suggested by simple sequence repeats analysis

Authors:
Catherine Breton, Michel Tersac and Andre´ Berville´*


Abstract:
Aim The oleaster is believed to have originated in the eastern Mediterranean, implying that those in the western Mediterranean basin could be feral. Several studies with different molecular markers (isozymes, random amplified polymorphic DNA, amplified fragment length polymorphism) have shown a cline between the eastern and the western populations, which supports this
hypothesis. To reconstruct the post-glacial colonization history and establish a relationship between olive and oleaster populations in the Mediterranean basin, analyses were carried out on the genetic variation of chloroplast DNA (chlorotype) and at 12 unlinked simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci, sampling a total of 20 oleaster groves.


Journal:
Journal of Biogeography 33, 1916–1928ª Blackwell Publishing Ltd