Abstract: Accurate identification of the genetic differences among tea cultivars is the prerequisite for conservation and utilization. Genetic differences of the full- and half-sib families of tea cultivar Jinguanyin were analyzed based on SSR molecular markers. The results showed that the genotyping data of the tested 31 SSR markers were highly stable, with totally 117 alleles and averagely 3.77 alleles per marker (ranging from 2 to 8). The number of genotypes, gene diversity index, gene heterozygosity, polymorphism information content (PIC) and discrimination power (PID), genetic distance ranged from 2 to 11, 0.15 to 0.8, 0.17 to 0.94, 0.14 to 0.77, 0.07 to 0.73 and 0.10 to 0.52, averagely 5.16, 0.54, 0.61, 0.48, 0.29 and 0.35, respectively. The genetic diversity followed the order that full-sib tea cultivars ˂ half-sib tea cultivars ˂ non-sib tea cultivars. The tested tea cultivars could be divided into 5 categories by the phylogenetic tree, which was closely correlated with leaf colour and tea manufacture characteristics. It’s a low probability (3.85×10^-5) to identify the wrong cultivar using 6 core SSR markers, which were highly accurate in identification and could be used for fingerprinting analysis in the tested clonal tea cultivars.

Key words: tea [Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze], SSR, clonal tea cultivar, genetic differences, fingerprinting