Set up of a DNA bank of Olea Europaea L. with cultivar traceability purposes in olive oil

Italy is one of the main producers of extra-virgin olive oil and there is a rich assortment of olive cultivars, 395, registered in the national list. Due to its typicality, part of the italian production has the qualification of protected designation of origin (PDO) mark. In PDO oils, the traceability of cultivars is essential to fulfill varietal requirements. The aim of this work was to set up a DNA bank of Olea europaea L. with the objective of cultivar traceability in olive oil. For this purpose 75 cultivars were collected from five distinct collections and used for DNA extraction by means of a commercial kit, as well as via a modified phenol-chloroform protocol, set up by the authors. Then, DNA was lyophilized to constitute the DNA bank, being subsequently used as reference. A technique for DNA immobilization in a solid matrix was also tested, and a limited number of these cultivars was used for monovarietal oil production by a pilot plant and the obtained oil was used to prove the suitability of microsatellite amplification, not only in the case of the analysis of leaves, but also directly on the final product. The electrophoretic profiles of leaves from the DNA bank corresponded to the monovarietal oil of the same cultivar.