Chloroplast DNA variation in the cultivated and wild olive taxa of the genus Olea L.

Polymorphism in the lengths of restriction fragments of the whole cpDNA molecule were studied in 15 taxa (species or subspecies) of the genus Olea. From restriction analysis using nine endonucleases, 28 site mutations and five length polymorphisms were identified, corresponding to 12 distinct chlorotypes. From a phenetic analysis based on a Nei’s dissimilarity matrix and a Dollo parsimony cladistic analysis using, as an outgroup, a species of the genus Phillyrea close to Olea, the ten taxa of section Olea were distinguished clearly from the five taxa of section Ligustroides which appear to posses more ancestral cpDNA variants. Within the section Ligustroides, the tropical species from central-western Africa, Olea hochtetteri, showed a chlorotype which differed substantially from those of the other four Olea taxa growing in southern Africa, supporting a previous assessment according to which O. hochtetteri may have been subjected to a long period of geographical isolation from the other Olea taxa. Within the Olea section, three phyla were identified corresponding to South and East Africa taxa, Asiatic taxa, and a group including Saharan, Macaronesian and Mediteranean taxa, respectively. On the basis of cpDNA variation, the closest Olea taxa to the single Mediterranean species, Olea europaea, represented by its very predominant chlorotype, observed in both wild and cultivated olive, were found to be Olea laperrinei (from the Sahara), Olea maroccana (from Maroccan High Atlas) and Olea cerasiformis (from Macaronesia). These three taxa, which all share the same chlorotype, may have a common maternal origin.