Recovery and characterisation of DNA from virgin olive oil

Summary

The characterisation of the genetic identity of DNA recoverable from olive oil could facilitate the assessment of its place of origin and conformity to type thanks to the particular regional spread of olive cultivars and to their different contributions to the olive oil mixture as stated by each Protected Designation of Origin regulation. This requires that intact DNA should be recovered from virgin olive oil. In an attempt to recover DNA from virgin olive oil, the performance of three different oil production methods was compared. The recorded data demonstrate that only olive oil obtained by using proteinase K treatment during the malaxation process contains DNA amenable to random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-PCR amplification. This important result represents the first unambiguous and reproducible RAPD-PCR amplification of DNA recovered from virgin olive oil.