Abstract:

【Objective】 The genetic diversity and relationship of tea cultivars and strains suitable for manufacturing green and black tea were studied in order to learn the genetic effect on the manufacture suitability of tea plant and to provide some molecular information to support the effective tea breeding. 【Method】 The genetic diversity and cluster analysis of 157 cultivars and strains of tea plant were analyzed using 39 pairs of SSR markers. 【Result】 Totally 191 alleles and 440 genotypes were amplified by 39 SSR markers, with the average of 4.90 and 11.28. The average polymorphism information content (PIC) , genetic diversity (H) and genetic distance were 0.57, 0.53 and 0.65, respectively. Genetic diversity of tested tea cultivars and stains from Guangdong was higher than that from other provinces. Evaluated samples were classified by their manufacture suitability and the genetic diversity of black tea cultivars was higher than that of double-edged cultivars for both black tea and green tea and that of green tea cultivars. The level of genetic diversity among cultivars bred by individual selection was higher than that of cultivars bred by other methods. Almost all the tested cultivars and strains were clustered according to their geographic source and breeding source using UPGMA method rather than manufacture suitability. 【Conclusion】 The genetic diversity of 157 tested tea cultivars was relatively abundant and the most abundant genetic diversity was identified among cultivars suitable for making black tea. In addition, the samples were clustered based on geographic and breeding source.

Key words: tea, cultivars (lines), SSR, genetic diversity, genetic relationship