engleski

Utility of wild germplasm in olive breeding

Most of the breeding works carried out in olive up to date has been based on the current ancient cultivars that have been produced by empiric selection of the growers through centuries. However, the high level of variability found in wild olive populations indicates that they could have genes of interest for obtaining olive cultivars adapted to the new trends of olive growing. In order to test the suitability of wild olives for breeding, we compared the segregation of an open pollination progeny of a wild olive located in a forest in Cadiz, Southern Spain, with a progeny obtained from free pollinization of a ‘Picual’ tree located in the World Olive Germplasm Bank of Cordoba, Spain. As expected, the wild progeny beared fruits of low weight and oil content. However, surprisingly, wild seedlings showed a significant lower juvenile period than the ones coming from ‘Picual’ open pollination progeny. This trait is very important for breeders and, quite likely, has not been a criteria of selection of the current cultivars. Additionally, seedlings from two progenies coming from the cross of ‘Picual’ with two wild olive trees have been evaluated. Fruit characteristics were intermediate between ‘Picual’ seedlings and wild seedlings. However, a great heterosis effect has been observed as those seedlings had much higher height and trunk size than seedlings coming from the cross of two cultivars. Accordingly, the average juvenile period of ‘Picual’ x wild progenies were much lower than the one observed in the progenies of the cross of two cultivars. All these results suggest the utility of wild germplasm in olive breeding that needs to be further investigated.

fruit characteristics; juvenile period; Olea europea; progeny

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