Diversity of biochemical components for tea germplasm resources in Liannan

ObjectiveBiochemical components of tea germplasm resources in Liannan,Guangdong was analyzed to offer scientific references for new tea variety breeding.MethodMain biochemical components including amino acids, tea polyphenols,alkaloid and ratio of tea polyphenols to amino acids(TP/AA)were detected from 45 wild tea plants located in Liannan,Guangdong,and their genetic diversity was also evaluated.ResultThe biochemical diversity and variation were high in Liannan tea germplasms. Variation coefficient of theobromine was the largest(146.39%),and followed by catechin gallate(CG)(115.71%)and epigallocatechin gallate(ECG)(108.20%). Variation coefficient of water extract was the lowest(12.14%). In principal component analysis,accumulative contribution rates of first principal component and second principal component were 77.284%and 93.441%,including most information about all traits. With comprehensive comparison,a group of germplasms with special biochemical components were selected. Among them,four tea germ-plasms contained high amino acids content(>5.00%),fourteen resources had high tea polyphenols content(>34.00%)and two with low caffeine content(<1.00%). Among resources with high water extract content,twelve resources contained high total catechin content and ester catechin content(ten from Woshui tea population and two from Huanglian tea population).ConclusionTea germplasm resources in Liannan,Guangdong contains diverse biochemical components, large coefficient of variation ,and feature genetic diversity and obvious regional uniqueness. The selected thirteen tea resources with high tea polyphenol content and other special tea resources can be used as basic materials for tea leaf deep-processing and variety breeding.