Abstract

Biomarkers are used as a vital tool in cultivar improvement programme for woody perennial tree crops such as (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze). Commercially important fifteen accessions were selected and investigated for total polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity (U/mg of protein), based on the PPO activity range, the accessions were further separated into three groups, namely high (P/11/10, UPASI-16, UPASI-18, UPASI-14, I/30/17), moderate (UPASI-3, UPASI-17, UPASI-13, UPASI-1, UPASI-21) and low (I/30/9, p/11/15, I/30/30,MGL-16, MGL- 8) PPO activity. To study the pattern of genetic diversity, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis was performed using twenty decamer primers. The RAPD amplification results revealed that genetic similarity (GS) among the accessions tested ranged 0.64 to 0.918 with an average of 0.28%. RAPD dendogram showed three distinct clusters of high, moderate and low using un-weighed pair-group method for arithmetic averages analysis (UPGMA) method. This genetic diversity studies on tea showed effectively for the initial assessment of partitioning the intra specific level of genetic variation correlated to the total PPO enzyme activity.

Key words: Camellia sinensis, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), polyphenol oxidase, genetic diversity.

Abbreviation

GS, Genetic similarity; PPO, polyphenol oxidase; RAPD, random amplified polymorphic DNA; UPASI, United Planters Association of South India; UPGMA, un-weighed pair-group method for arithmetic averages analysis.