Welcome to Journal of Tea Science,Today is

Journal of Tea Science ›› 2021, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (1): 71-79.doi: 10.13305/j.cnki.jts.2021.01.008

• Research Paper • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Analysis and Evaluation of Purine Alkaloid Contents in Bitter Tea Germplasm Resources from Guangdong

LI Hongjian, QIN Dandan, JIANG Xiaohui, FANG Kaixing, WANG Qiushuang, PAN Chendong, LI Bo, WANG Qing, WU Hualing*   

  1. Tea Research institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Guangdong Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Resources Innovation and Utilization, Guangzhou 510640, China
  • Received:2020-05-27 Revised:2020-06-24 Online:2021-02-15 Published:2021-02-23

Abstract: The purine alkaloids of 13 bitter tea germplasms from Guangdong Province along with 28 representative cultivars (lines) from different tea producing areas in China were selected for analysis in this paper. The results indicate that genetic diversity index (H′) of purine alkaloids ranged from 0.78 to 1.94, while the coefficient of variation (CV) ranged from 34.89% to 191.19%. The samples could be divided into 6 groups based on cluster analysis: group Ⅰ, Ⅱ and Ⅲ were predominantly consisted of conventional cultivars with high caffeine content; group Ⅴ contained caffeine-free cultivars from Nankun Mountain, while all samples in group Ⅳ and Ⅵ were bitter tea with high theacrine content. A total of 10 purine alkaloid specific bitter tea resources were identified. Moreover, theacrine showed a gradually decrease trend with the increase of leaf positions but maintained a high level in mature leaves of bitter tea. Taken together, our research provided a basis for genetic improvement of functional tea cultivars with specific purine alkaloids in the future.

Key words: bitter tea, purine alkaloids, germplasms, genetic diversity, cluster analysis

CLC Number: