TITLE:
Trends in Breeding New Olive Varieties in Israel for Quality and Economic Management
AUTHORS:
Shimon Lavee, Benyamin Avidan, Giora Ben-Ari
KEYWORDS:
Olive, Orchard Systems, Breeding, Genetic Markers New Cultivars
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.5 No.8,
July
23,
2014
ABSTRACT: The domesticated
olives originated based on decades of selection from the natural forest around
the Mediterranean basin being one of the oldest cultivated tree crops. The
requirement for new olive varieties increased markedly during the last 100
years as a result of a worldwide transformation changing from a traditional
extensive to a modern intensive mechanized industry. The traditional olive
cultivars still widely used are selections from the local autochthonous
cultivars which are well adapted to their natural environment. However, the
level of production of those is usually rather low and many of them failed to
respond enough to modern intensification methods. The wild olive population is
gradually diminishing in all regions thus, natural selection is not efficient
enough for developing the cultivars required for the new intensive olive
industry. Cross breeding between cultivars with specific characters became the
basis for the required new cultivars. The genetic diversity in progenies of
most olive cultivars is extremely wide and thus becomes the basic source for
breeding of the needed new cultivars. However, the genetic information on olive
heredity and identification of specific gene characteristics is still limited. Genomic
information is required for rational choice of genitors in accordance with each
breeding aim, particularly as most criteria required for the new varieties are
of multi-gene nature. The availability of advanced genomic information will also
serve as basis for molecular engineering when accepted for use in the olive
commodity. Geographically isolated olive populations developed during generations
of inbreeding in remote regions are another important genetic resource of
characters required for breeding the cultivars for the new modern mechanized
olive orchards. The use of molecular markers based on AFLP, SSRs, DArT and SNPs
is important for the choice of genitors leading to a reduction of the progeny
size required in olive breeding. Presently the newly released olive cultivars
are still the result of classical breeding.