Ahead of a seminar to be held in Atlit, Dr. Yoav Ben-Dor from the Geological Survey of Israel describes extensive research conducted on wild olive cultivars that maintain a wide genetic diversity, which could help develop varieties resistant to the climate crisis.
It is impossible to imagine our lives in modern times without emphasizing the importance of the process of cultivating selected species from the world of flora and fauna for human use. The opportunity given to us as people living in modern times to engage in various professions, including medicine, research, law, and others, is based on the current social structure that allows specialization in a particular field of knowledge or profession. At the heart of this development is the key ability of a small part of humanity to provide the human population with abundant food for all people, and hence many people are free to engage in other matters. It is commonly believed that every tower of progress on which we stand is based on the infrastructure of the agricultural revolution that occurred about 11,000 years ago throughout the Fertile Crescent. Although there is disagreement about the exact location and timing of this revolution, it is clear that the key factor that made it possible was the identification of plant (and later animal) species whose cultivation directly benefited humans, and eased the constant struggle to find food for survival through hunting and gathering.
The process of breeding wild plants is based on the principle of artificial selection. Similar to Charles Darwin's claim that changes in natural conditions lead to the extinction or prosperity of individuals with different characteristics from the same population, humans have worked over the years to sift and select the individuals in which they saw the greatest benefit. For example, when they identified a tree that yielded more, larger, or sweeter fruits, humans made an effort to propagate it by exploiting the asexual reproduction ability of plants (using cuttings, which preserve the genetic material of the mother plant). A consequence of this process is that wild populations include greater genetic diversity and more diverse characteristics (size of the berry or fruit, prevention of seed dispersal, taste, etc.), while individuals of cultivated populations, which have been cultivated over many years of selection and selection, are generally characterized by more similar characteristics and a narrower genetic background.

This process of selection based on individual traits is called domestication in reference to animals or domestication in reference to plants, and it describes the procedure in which individual individuals from the natural variety are selected and developed, while reducing the genetic diversity that contributed to the development of modern agricultural varieties. In the case of plants that were spread by humans throughout the world, such as wheat, grapevines, dates, and olives, agricultural varieties that meet different needs have developed, which we know from the names on various products in the supermarket (Durum or Manitoba in the case of wheat and Majhol or Barhi in the case of dates, etc.). However, because these are processes that last thousands of years, humans' connection with the original plants that preceded the domestication process has been lost over the years.
About one hundred and twenty years have passed since Aaron Aaronson completed his journey to determine whether wheat is the wild wheat from which the wheat varieties we know today were cultivated over the past thousands of years, but there still remain many species of plants whose domestication process is not entirely clear. As part of research conducted in recent years at the Institute of Plant Sciences at the Volcani Agricultural Research Directorate, in collaboration with various bodies such as the DASH Institute and Ramat Hanadiv, researchers are trying to identify the local olive varieties in Israel and characterize them in order to understand the process of olive domestication. This is because the olive tree is of great importance in Jewish culture and in the Mediterranean basin in general. It serves as a symbol of perseverance and determination, and its impressive image adorns many symbols and paintings. In addition, it is a significant food source both for olives that are eaten after pressing and for producing oil, which has served for many years as a central and even sole source of oil in various cultures, and has been honored in Israeli culture around the events of the holiday of Hanukkah and the miracle of the oil jug mentioned during them. Two of the leaders of research on the olive and its origins in recent years are Prof. Ez Barzani and Prof. Arnon Dag from the Institute of Plant Sciences at the Volcani Agricultural Research Directorate, who served as supervisors for research student Elad Ben Dor, who recently arrived For innovative and groundbreaking discoveries during his studies at the Hebrew University.

Archaeological and historical evidence indicates that the southern Levant (the area that includes Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon) was crucial in the cultivation of wild olives and the development of local varieties of olives, which later spread to many parts of the world. However, until recently, the "father of the olive" from which olives were domesticated in the region had not been found. In a recently published study As part of Elad Ben Dor's master's degree in the scientific journal BMC PLANT BIOLOGY, researchers examined populations of olive trees with a unique appearance. In the northern coastal plain and the Galilee, in order to characterize their genetic composition and expression. During the research process, the researchers identified a population of olives with a bushy appearance, small-fruited fruits and low oil percentages, and with significant genetic variation. In addition, the researchers examined the composition of the oil and the expression of the olive seeds and compared them to olives from known varieties used for agricultural olive production. In light of the weighting of the findings from all the methods they used, the researchers concluded that this is a natural population of wild olives, and that it is most likely the ancestor from which the domestication process began. Although the olive reproduces through wind-based pollination, these populations survived due to their unique location along the coast, which dictates strong westerly winds, thus preventing over the years the exchange of genes between them and the agricultural olive vineyards that grew nearby. Therefore, due to the unique location of The olives on the Kurkar ridge in Atlit, researchers have managed to identify and characterize the ancestor of the olive tree that we know from the landscape and from the plate, which over the years has become a familiar symbol in various cultures in the eastern Mediterranean basin. The realization that this group of tenacious trees has preserved genetic traits for thousands of years can leave even those who do not appreciate history with a sense of astonishment. One can imagine the ancient parents of these olives watching humanity develop in Atlit by the sea as human civilization goes through the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, the Crusaders and the Turks. All of these and others have passed through here, conquered, settled and disappeared, but the tree population has remained unchanged. Now the researchers seek to emphasize the importance of this population and The need for its preservation Both as an important historical record, but also as a broad and important genetic source required for the improvement of varieties or the imparting of resistance to pests and diseases, phenomena that are expected to worsen with the process of climate change.
On February 17th, the researchers will hold Conference for the general public at the illegal immigrant camp in Atlit, where various studies on this topic will be presented. Admission to the seminar is free, but pre-registration is required, and the public is invited to come and listen to the lectures.
Register for free for the Olive Information Day to be held at the Atlit Immigrant Camp
To read an article about wild olives in "Ecology and Environment" -
To read the full article on the ancient olive population:
To read the DHA Institute survey on the importance of wild olives in the Kurkar Ridge in Atlit:
More of the topic in Hayadan: (Beresheet is the Hebrew name for the book of Genesis)