Olive (Olea europaea L.) micropropagation

Olive (Olea europaea L.) is a fruit species native to the Mediterranean region and cultivated for table olives and olive oil production. Olive is generally propagated vegetatively through mist propagation of leafy stem cuttings. However, due to the limitations of this technique, propagation through in vitro culture such as nodal segmentation of elongated shoots (microcutting) and somatic embryogenesis was established. Olive micropropagation can be used for rapid and large-scale propagation of disease-free and/or selected genotypes, and for genetic improvement programs. In the present book, detailed methods for successful in vitro propagation of olive through different techniques such as microcutting, somatic embryogenesis, adventitious organogenesis and micrografting are described, and results from literature regarding olive micropropagation and the application of tissue culture in genetic transformation and cryopreservation technologies are reported.