Molecular markers in tea plant (Camellia sinensis): Applications to evolution, genetic identification, and molecular breeding

Tea plants have a long cultivation history in the world, and the beverage (tea) made from its leaves is well known in the world. Due to the characteristics of self-incompatibility, long-term natural and artificial hybridization, tea plants have a very complex genetic background, which make the classification of tea plants unclear. Molecular marker, one type of genetic markers, has the advantages of stable inheritance, large amount of information, and high reliability. The development of molecular marker has facilitated the understanding of complex tea germ -plasm resources. So far, molecular markers had played important roles in the study of the origin and evolution, the preservation and identification of tea germplasms, and the excellent cultivars breeding of tea plants. How-ever, the information is scattered, making it difficult to understand the advance of molecular markers in tea plants. In this paper, we summarized the development process and types of molecular markers in tea plants. In addition, the application advance of these molecular markers in tea plants was reviewed. Perspectives of mo-lecular markers in tea plants were also systematically provided and discussed. The elaboration of molecular markers in this paper should help us to renew understanding of its application in tea plants.