A breakthrough in the excavation of germplasm resources of tea trees in Hunan oriented to functional components

　　As a major tea-producing province in China, Hunan Province is rich in wild tea tree resources. In recent years, Wu Wenliang, post-doctoral fellow, Liu Zhen and Li Saijun from the Institute of Tea Research, Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences have carried out the work of wild tea germplasm resources excavation and selection of new varieties with special characteristics, and for the first time, tea tree resources containing theacrine functional constituents were found in the wild tea tree resources of Hunan tea area.

　　Theacrine has antidepressant and sedative effects. After years of systematic selection and breeding of tea tree germplasm resources with a high content of theacrine, the team has successfully selected a number of tea tree strains with a high content of theacrine, and the relevant results were published in the international top journal in the field of agri-food, food chemistry:x.

The objective of this research is to select and promote tea tree varieties with specific functional components, and to provide support for the optimal adjustment of the structure of Chinese tea tree varieties.

　　This research was supported by the Yuelu Mountain Tea Tree Seed Industry Innovation Centre and the Hunan Self Science Foundation Major Project (unveiling system) - "Basic Research on the Analysis of Important Functional Genes and Molecular Breeding of Advantageous Crops in Hunan".