Characterisation of olive (Olea europaea L:) genome and cultivar identification.

Development of specific markers for olive cultivar identification and protection is an essential requirement for the oliveculture. In this paper we report the development of methods concerning high level purification of DNA, genome characterisation, isolation of DNA sequences useful for molecular cloning and analyses in cultivar identification. Physico-chemical and molecular methods such as CsCl density gradient centrifugation, thermal denaturation and reassociation kinetics, isolation and cloning of highly repetitive sequences have been used. DNA characterisation evidenced differences in DNA components among the cultivars Arauco, Cucca, Gordal Sevillana and Uovo di Piccione