Phylogenetic relationships among Olea species, based on nucleotide variation at a non-coding chloroplast DNA region

The purpose of this study was to assess nucleotide variation at a non-coding chloroplast DNA region in Olea species, to evaluate their phylogenetic relationships within the Olea genus and, more particularly, to clarify the relationships between cultivated olive (O. europaea) and the other taxa of section Olea. The analysis was made on an intergenic region between the trnT(UGU) and trnL(UAA) 5' exon, within a large single copy region of the chloroplast genome. Site-specific primers were used to amplify the region by PCR. This sequence analysis was applied to the same array of Olea species as assayed by Lumaret et al. (2000([16])) using cpDNA RFLPs, thus making it possible to compare phylogenetic relationships analysed at two complementary levels of cpDNA variation. On the 666 bp aligned sequence, 8 different haplotypes were defined, with 9 single nucleotide mutations, a different length of a poly-T region and an indel for O. paniculata. Haplotypes were shared by the species pairs O. europoea-O.laperrinei, O. maroccana-O. cerasiformis, O. capensis-O. lancea and O. africana-O.indica. Phylogenetic analyses of these data distinguished four groups: the species Olea capensis and O. lancea, which both belong to subgenus Ligustroides, the Olea forms from southeast Africa, those from Asia and the taxa of northwest Africa and the Mediterranean Basin, which include olive crop. The results are consistent with those previously found using cpDNA RFLPs, with some minor differences observed within each group. They constitute further evidence to clarify the phylogeny of Olea.