Assessing pheno- and genotypic differentiation of old olive trees in correlation with environmental parameters in Israel and the Palestinian Authority
Final Report Abstract
Our analyses of old olive trees in Israel and the Palestinian authority could unambiguously demonstrate that grafting was the most common technique for olive propagation in the area in the past. This conclusion is based on the observation that in 82.7% of trees where both scions (potential graft) and suckers (potential rootstock) could be analysed these were genetically different. Very surprisingly, we found that 90% of the grafts analysed belong to a single multi-locus lineage and this represent essentially one genotype. We interpret this as strong evidence for selection of only one ancient graft clone which is able to grow and perform well under very different environmental conditions. As 22.6% of the trees analysed share one rootstock genotype, it seems possible that not only graft but also rootstock genotypes were selected, although less strongly. We also found that two populations (of six populations analysed) of olive trees growing in natural environments in Israel may represent truly wild olive trees (Olea europaea var. sylvestris). Considering their long history of co-existence with cultivated olive groves, these results are very surprising.
Publications
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2008: Local old olive landrace varieties in Israel - valuable plant genetic resources in olive cultivation. - Israel Journal of Botany 56: 265 – 272
Barazani, O., Dag, A., Kerem, Z., Lavee, S., Kadereit, J. W.
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2014: A comparative analysis of genetic variation in rootstocks and scions of old olive trees – a window into the history of olive cultivation practices and past genetic variation. - BMC Plant Biology 14: 146
Barazani, O., Westberg, E., Hanin, N. Dag, A. Kerem, Z., Tugendhaft, Y., Hmidat, M., Hijawi, T., Kadereit, J.W.
