Preliminary characterization and morph-agronomic evaluation of millennium olive varieties in Tunisia

Paper Details

Research Paper 01/08/2013
Views (401) Download (10)
current_issue_feature_image
publication_file

Preliminary characterization and morph-agronomic evaluation of millennium olive varieties in Tunisia

Mnasri Rahmani Sameh, Saddoud Debbabi Olfa, Ferchichi Ali
J. Bio. Env. Sci.3( 8), 150-155, August 2013.
Certificate: JBES 2013 [Generate Certificate]

Abstract

Tunisia is one of the oldest agricultural settlements in history. Evidences revealed by archeological excavations indicated that olives were cultivated before about 3000 years in Tunisia. Although the importance of millennium olives, studies about characterization and evaluation are scarce. The aims of this work were to make a morpho-agronomic characterization of eighteen millennium olive cultivars collected from eight different archeological sites. This work was conducted in the framework of the activities of the fruit tree network in the Tunisian National Gene Bank. Quantitative and qualitative traits were measured in pit, fruit and leaf samples, In order to group the genetic material and evaluate the phenotypic variability, descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, factorial and principal components analysis were used. The 18 accessions were grouped in 2 clusters based on the multivariate analysis of 18 traits. The collection featured phenotypic variability for all the studied traits, especially for the fruit and endocarp parameters. Principal components analysis conducted on quantitative and qualitative traits showed an important degree of variability of about 81.41% for the two first principal components and the factorial analysis was conducted for quantitative data and revealed 79.25% of the total diversity for the two first factors. The phenotypic diversity observed among the millennium cultivars suggests a high genetic potential of this heritage and confirmed the urgency to protect the specimens studied cultivars.

VIEWS 17

Badenes ML. 1991. Characterization and identification of apricot cultivars by morphological and biochemical methods. Doctoral thesis at the University of Valencia, Valencia (Spain).

Barranco D, Ciamato A, Fiorino P, Rallo L, Touazini A, Ccastaneda C, Serafin F, Trujillo I. 2000. World catalogue of olive varieties. International Olive Council, Madrid, 17–21.

Bartolini G, Prevost G, Messeri C, Carignani G. 1998. Cultivars and World-wide collections. FAO, Roma.

Bartolini G, Prevost G , Messeri C, Carignani G . 2005. Olive germplasm: cultivars and word-wide collections.

Berdahl P, Akbari H, Rose LS. 2002. Aging of Reflective Roofs: Soot Deposition, Applied Optics Journal 41 (12), 2355-2360.

Brown JP. 2004. Wine and oil in the antique Mediterranean. Publishing «Saint- Etienne » house, France.

Cooper JCB. 1983. Factor analysis: An overview. The American Statistician Journal. 37,141-147.

IOC. 1997. Methodology for primary characterization of olive varieties. Project RESGEN –CT (67/97), EU/IOC.

Loussert L, Brousse G. 1978. Olive tree: Mediterranean Agricultural Techniques of olive production. Publishing « neuve and Larose » house , 44-111.

Mehri H, Mehri KR. 2007. The Bioagronomic Characterization of a Local Olive Cultivar Gerboui. American Journal of Plant Physiology 2(1), 1-16.

Mnasri RS, Saddoud DO, Ferchichi A. 2013. The study of olive oil quality and morphological biodiversity of Olea europaea L. in the region of “Hbebsa”. Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences. 4: 59-66.

Paula BM, Pinheiro PBM, Joaquim CG, Esteves Da Silva JCG. 2005. Chemometric classification of olives from three Portuguese cultivars of Olea europaea L. Analytica Chimica Acta 544, 229–235.

Saddoud DO, Bouhlal R, Abdelaali N, Mnasri RS, Mars M. 2013. Pomological study of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck) Cultivars from Tunisia. International Journal of Fruit Sciences 13, 274-284.

Vossen P. 2007. Olive Oil: History, Production, and Characteristics of the World’s Classic Oils. Journal of Horticultural Sciences. 42(5), 1093-1100.

Zaher H, Boulouha B, Baaziz M, Sikaoui L, Gaboun F, Sripada MU. 2011. Morphological and genetic diversity in olive (Olea europaea subsp. europaea L.) clones and varieties. Plant Omics Journal 4(7), 370-376.