Identification of molecular markers associated with fruit traits in olive and assessment of olive core collection with AFLP markers and fruit traits M. Ipek1, M. Seker2, A. Ipek1 and M.K. Gul3 Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Uludag University, Bursa, Turkey 2 Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Sırnak University, Sırnak, Turkey 3 Sales and Marketing Manager, EuroChem Agro, Istanbul, Turkey 1

Corresponding author: M. Ipek E-mail: [email protected] Genet. Mol. Res. 14 (1): 2762-2774 (2015) Received February 25, 2014 Accepted June 30, 2014 Published March 31, 2015 DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.4238/2015.March.31.6

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study was to characterize olive core collection with amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers and fruit traits and to determine AFLP markers significantly associated with these fruit characters in olive. A total of 168 polymorphic AFLP markers generated by five primer combinations and nine fruit traits were used to characterize relationships between 18 olive cultivars. Although all olive cultivars were discriminated from each other by either AFLP markers (