Rapid Multiplication for Producing Quality Planting Material of Olive [Olea europaea L. cv. Barnea] through Plant Tissue Culture and It’s Commercial Application

Olea europaea is an economically important tree species native to Mediterranean region. The present
study is focused on developing the regeneration protocol and production of true-to-type plants of Olea
europaea L. cv Barnea with commercial importance. Olive tree is a long lived evergreen tree but has a
long juvenile phase and reaches its full production stage at 25 - 30 years of age. Traditionally, for
many years, they have been propagated through cutting, grafting, vegetative propagation and in
recent years, through air layering through plant tissue culture methods this problem of long juvenility
can be overcome in addition large number of pathogen free plants can be produced. Nodes from
adventitious shoots were surface sterilized and inoculated in different tissue culture media such as
Woody Plant Media (WPM), Murashige and Skoog media (MS), Rugini Olive media (OM), Schenk and
Hildebrandt media (SH) and Multiplication media (Combination of half strength MS and half strength
Rugini OM) in which culture establishment was best obtained in multiplication media supplemented
with 1 mg/l zeatin. Different treatment was given to induce shoot proliferation and the highest shoot
number 4.2±0.4 was obtained in multiplication media enriched with 2.0 mg/l zeatin and silver nitrate at
2.0 mg/l. The in-vitro derived shoots were assessed for genetic fidelity using different molecular
markers Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Inter Simple Sequence Repeat
(ISSR). Monomorphic bands were obtained between the mother DNA and in-vitro derived progenies
which indicated that there is genetic stability in the in-vitro regenerated plants. Commercial analysis
was done with respect to Industrial Use. The global market for olive is estimated to grow at a
compound annual growth rate of 4.5% in the forecast period of 2019-2024. In the production of olive,
Spain holds the largest share of world production and Italy holds the second largest share. Although
in recent years, the world has begun to see olive from various new regions. The present study is the
initiative step towards propagation of Olive cultivar in South Asian region.