Proceedings of the XLVI Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress

Giardini Naxos, Italy - 18/21 September, 2002

ISBN 88-900622-3-1

Poster Abstract - 3.11

MORPHOLOGICAL, BIOCHEMICAL AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERISATION OF ORIGANUM ACCESSIONS ENDEMIC OF SOUTHERN ITALY

RICCIARDI L.*, DE MASTRO G.**, DE GIOVANNI C.*, LOTTI C.***, ARMENISE L.*

*) Dipartimento di Biologia e Chimica Agroforestale e Ambientale, Facoltà di Agragria Università degli Studi di Bari, Via Amendola 165/A, 70125 Bari

**) Dipartimento di Produzioni Vegetali, Facoltà di Agragria Università degli Studi di Bari, Via Amendola 165/A, 70125 Bari

***) Istituto di Produzioni Vegetali, Facoltà di Agraria, Università degli Studi di Foggia, Via Napoli 25, 71110 Foggia

oregano, essential oil, genetic characterisation, AFLP

The general interest of the market towards the officinal plants, in particular oregano, is spreading out not only for their traditional fresh use but also for the novel demands of the phyto-pharmaceutical sector. Oil extracts are of valuable importance because of compounds, such as carvacrol and thymol, having antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.

The genus Oreganum is characterised by a high level of variability in morphological and technological traits, this is the cause of the confused taxonomic identification of a great number of commercial species named in the same manner within the genus. Sixty-one species belonging to 17 genera within 6 different botanical families are commercially defined as “oregano”. On the international market two distinct types of oregano are present: the European from the genus Origanum (Lamiaceae) and the Mexican from the genus Lippia (Verbenaceae).

In the present work, due a collaboration between the Department of Plant Production and the Section of Genetic and Plant Breeding, results are scored in order to evaluate the chemical oil composition of oregano, identify genotypes with higher content in carvacrol and thymol and, simultaneously, carry out the molecular analysis, useful to evaluate DNA polymorphism to univocally characterise and estimate the genetic distances among plant materials.

The study, carried out on 23 Origanum accessions, collected in different areas of Southern Italy, and one commercial variety, is focused on the survey of several morphological traits, the determination of essential oil yields and the molecular analysis by AFLP on DNA isolated from leaves. The choice of AFLPs was due to the potential capability of this technique to detect a large level of polymorphism.

In the present work the usefulness of AFLP technique is focused on the assessment and genetic characterisation of different accessions, in this way it could be possible to identify the promising material to use in future breeding programs.