VATIS UPDATE Article

A research team from Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB), China, has decoded the genetic building blocks of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis, whose leaves are used for all types of tea, including black, green and oolong. The research gives an insight into the chemicals that give tea its flavour. “There are many diverse flavours, but the mystery is what determines or what is the genetic basis of tea flavours?” said Lizhi Gao at KIB.

The Camellia grouping, or genus, contains over 100 species, including ornamental garden plants. But only Camellia Sinensis is grown commercially for making tea. The researchers found that the leaves of the tea plant contain high levels of chemicals that give tea its distinctive flavour. They include flavonoids and caffeine. Other members of the Camellia genus contain these chemicals at much lower levels.

Decoding the genome of the tea plant took more than five years. At three billion DNA base pairs in length, the tea plant genome is more than four times the size of the coffee plant genome and much larger than most sequenced plant species. “Our lab has successfully sequenced and assembled more than 20 plant genomes,” said Prof Gao, who carried out the work with scientists in Republic of Korea and the US.