Genetic Structure of Six Korean Tea Populations as Revealed by RAPD‐PCR Markers

Abstract

Numerous Korean tea [Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze] populations abandoned for more than nine centuries represent important genetic resources for future breeding of new tea types and tastes. This study was conducted to evaluate on the basis of random amplified polymorphic DNA‐polymerase chain reaction (RAPD‐PCR) markers the degree and organization of genetic diversity within and between six Korea populations and to formulate conservation strategies for tea populations in Korea. Of the 50 RAPD primers screened, 12 primers generated 25 reproducible and polymorphic bands. The genetic diversity within populations calculated from the Nei's index averaged 0.33 and was relatively lower than that found in other natural plant populations. This could be explained by the narrow genetic base of the tea samples introduced from Mainland China and considerable reduction in population size following mass destruction of tea populations in the fourteenth century. No geographical trends were observed among the tea populations following classification by unweighted pair group method and arithmetic average (UPGMA) and Nei distances and factorial correspondence analysis (FCA) carried out on individual samples. Even though highly significant differences were found among populations upon an analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), a markedly higher proportion of diversity was observed within populations (84%) as compared with between populations (16%). The fact that most diversity is within populations reflects the highly outcrossing nature of tea species. In the light of these results, it is proposed that conservation efforts target whole diverse populations rather than selected individuals from different populations. Due consideration should nevertheless be given to populations comprising private or rare alleles.

Microsatellite variability within and among local landrace populations of tea, Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze, in Kyoto, Japan

“…Previously, genetic variability of tea plants has been studied with RFLP (Matsumoto et al 1994(Matsumoto et al , 2004, AFLP (Paul et al 1997), and RAPD (Kaundun et al 2000;Kaundun and Park 2002;Park et al 2002) markers. AFLP and RAPD are dominant markers and have disadvantages for estimating allele frequencies within populations, especially for cross-fertilizing species like tea.…”

High Level of Genetic Diversity Among the Selected Accessions of Tea (Camellia sinensis) from Abandoned Tea Gardens in Western Himalaya

“…Numerous studies of genetic diversity have been conducted on tea germplasm from other regions using various methods (Matsumoto et al 1994;Lee et al 1995;Wachira et al 1995Wachira et al , 1997Paul et al 1997;Kaundun et al 2000;Lai et al 2001;Kaundun and Park 2002;Balasaravanan et al 2003). Very few studies, however, have been carried out on the western Himalayan germplasm.…”

Genetic Differentiation and Conservation of 14 Surviving Individuals of Euryodendron excelsum Endemic to China

“…The results indicated a high degree of homogeneity. Kaundun and Park [20] evaluated the genetic structure of six tea (C. sinensis) populations located in Korea using RAPD as well. Out of 40 primers amplifying reproducible bands, only 12 detected 25 polymorphic sites.…”