Abstract: Tea plant populations are natural populations of tea plants. They are cultivated in specific production areas and contain individuals with different economic and biological traits. There are great differences among individuals and there are many types. They are important materials for studying the evolutionary relationship and breeding of tea plants. In this study, 30 pairs of SSR primers distributed on 15 linkage groups were selected to analyze the genetic diversity and population structure of 32 tea plant populations from 12 provinces, in order to provide a reference for the selection of tea breeding parents and the inference of evolution route. In this study, a total of 149 alleles were obtained with an average of 5.96 for each SSR marker. The average polymorphism information content of primers was 0.660. Shannon's diversity index of 32 tea populations ranged from 0.691 to 1.089, with an average of 0.954. The observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.253 to 0.633, with an average of 0.510. The expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.430 to 0.653, with an average of 0.590. The average genetic differentiation coefficient (Fst) of tea plant population was 0.205, indicating a high level of genetic differentiation. The results of clustering based on Nei's genetic distance and population structure analysis were consistent. The germplasm to be tested was divided into 4 major types, with obvious regional distribution.

Key words: tea landraces, SSR molecular marker, population structure, genetic diversity, evolutionary route