Objective Paternity analysis of main olive cultivars progenies in Wudu Olive Orchard from Gansu province was carried out to identify the true paternal parent, explore the compatibility, and provide references for the selection of pollination cultivars in the orchard.

Method 114 germplasm accessions from Wudu Olive Orchard were used as candidate paternal parents. Based on 14 pairs of fluorescence-labelled SSR markers, Cervus software was used to detect the parameters. True paternal parent identification of the four cultivars progenies (‘Chenggu 32’, ‘Arbequina’, ‘Hojiblanca’ and ‘Picual’) was performed.

Result The 14 SSR loci were highly polymorphic and the cumulative exclusion probability increased with the number of loci. For the single parent known type NE-2P, the cumulative exclusion probability of the 14 loci was as high as 0.999. By comparing the genotypes of the progeny, the female parent and the candidate paternal parent, the LOD (log of likelihood ratio) values of each candidate paternal parent were calculated, and the identification of the true paternal parents of the partial progenies of the four cultivars was completed. The main paternal parent of the ‘Chenggu 32’ and ‘Picual’ progenies was ‘Arbequina’, while the main paternal parent of the ‘Arbequina’ and ‘Hojiblanca’ progenies was ‘Manzanilla’.

Conclusion The SSR loci with characteristics of high polymorphism and high cumulative exclusion probability selected in the study are suitable for paternity analysis of olive cultivars progenies. The true paternal parents were identified for some of the four cultivars progenies and only ‘Chenggu 32’ among the four cultivars shows a certain self-compatibility, which provide important basis for the selection and configuration of pollination cultivars in the future orchard establishment.