Ressources génétiques/Olivier2

Morphological analysis of the autochthon olive varieties cultivated in the North West of Tunisia. 

S.R. MNASRI, O.D SADDOUD, S. ROUZ , M.BEN SALEH, A. FERCHICHI

Volume 37(4). Published January, 01, 2017

Abstract - In the present paper we focus on the characterization and the conservation of the local minor olive cultivars in Tunisia. Our work was conducted in the framework of the activities of the fruit tree network in the Tunisian National Gene Bank. The objective is to study the relationship between thirteen autochthon olive varieties cultivated in the regions of “Rouhia”, “Makthar” and “Kesra” localized in the government of “Siliana” (North West of Tunisia). The experimental approach was based on the morphological data of the leaf, fruit and the endocarp as described by the International Olive Council (12). Polymorphism was observed among 18 evaluated qualitative traits, whereas significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed for 11 analyzed quantitative traits. The principal components analysis showed a degree of variability of about 80% for the first two principal components, a percentage sufficiently high to ensure that the PCA plots were representative of the main features of the data set. Likewise, the hierarchical analysis based on Ward’s method permitted the separation of the thirteen studied cultivars on four main groups based essentially on the morphological data of the fruit and the endocarp which proved the importance of these parameters to discriminate between the olive cultivars. The phenotypic diversity observed among the autochthon olive cultivars in government of “Siliana” suggests a high genetic potential of this heritage and confirmed the necessity to protect the specimens studied cultivars. 

Keywords: Morphological analysis, Autochthon olive, Biodiversity, Gene Bank, Tunisia.

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