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Molecular markers and phenotypic identification reveal the genetic diversity and structure of four local tea plant populations in China

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Abstract

Local tea plant population resources are rich in genetic variations, which are the natural treasure house of tea genes and the main source of breeding excellent tea cultivars. However, the genetic information of most local tea plant populations is unknown. In this study, the genetic diversity and population structure of the four main local tea plant populations from the Jiangxi Province of China were explored by combining the identification of phenotypic characters with simple sequence repeat (SSR). The loci associated with the phenotypic characters were also screened. The results of the genetic diversity analysis of the phenotypes and SSR were consistent. We observed that the genetic diversity of the population species in the four tea plant populations was higher than that of the wild species. The genetic diversity index was in the order Wuyuan > Fuliang > Suichuan > Ningdu. The single plants of each population were heterozygotes. The Wuyuan population had the highest heterozygosity. The clustering results of the phenotypes and SSR of the tea plant populations were not completely consistent. SSR could more effectively distinguish the tea plant populations. Four tea populations could be clustered into three groups. In total, nine SSR loci were screened and were significantly associated with nine phenotypic characters (P < 0.01). The interpretation rate of the phenotypic variation ranged from 6.94 to 33.90%. These phenotypic characters were related to the yield and mechanical harvest of the tea cultivars.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to Wuyuan County Tea Development Center, Fuliang County Tea Bureau and Suichuan County Tea Industry Development Center for their sampling assistance.

Funding

The research was funded by the earmarked fund for Jiangxi Agriculture Research System (JXARS-02), Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Tea Quality and Safety Control (20192BCD40007), National Modern Industrial Technology System (CARS-19), Science and Technology Project of Jiangxi Province (20202BBF63004), Science and Technology Project of Jiangxi Province (20212BBF63009), Funds for Local Scientific and Technological Development Guided by The Central Government (20231zdf03080) and Central government guides local science and technology development fund projects (20231zdf03080).

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  1. Zhihui Wang and Hua Peng have contributed equally to this study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangxi Cash Crops Research Institute, Nanchang, 330202, China

    Zhihui Wang, Hua Peng, Cuinan Yue, Chuan Ye, Wenjin Li & Puxiang Yang

  2. Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Tea Quality and Safety Control, Nanchang, 330202, China

    Zhihui Wang, Hua Peng, Cuinan Yue, Chuan Ye, Wenjin Li & Puxiang Yang

Authors
  1. Zhihui Wang
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  2. Hua Peng
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. The performance of the experiments, Contribution of reagents/material, data collection and analysis were performed by ZHW, HP and CNY. PXY, WJL and CY designed the research. The first draft of the manuscript was written by ZHW and all authors reviewed draft manuscript and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Chuan Ye, Wenjin Li or Puxiang Yang.

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Wang, Z., Peng, H., Yue, C. et al. Molecular markers and phenotypic identification reveal the genetic diversity and structure of four local tea plant populations in China. Genet Resour Crop Evol 71, 635–649 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-023-01646-0

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