Development of CAPS markers to identify Indian tea (Camellia sinensis) clones with high catechin content

Tea leaves are rich in plant secondary phenolics, especially flavonoids. Catechins are considered to be the most valuable flavonoids, and the catechin content in tea is an important trait for determining its quality. We have developed cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS)-based markers for evaluating total catechin content that target two important secondary metabolite pathway genes, PAL (phenylalanine ammonia-lyase) and CHS (chalcone synthase). Catechin content levels in the tea samples tested ranged from 9 to 33 mg/mg. The CAPS technique identified clones with the homozygous profile PRc1, which has relatively lower catechin content than clones with the heterozygous profile PRc2. A significant difference (t = 16.85) in the level of catechin content was also detected between heterozygotes and homozygotes in the tea seed stock TS379. We found a polynomial relationship between the marker developed for CHS2 and catechin content in these tea samples with R2 = 0.9788. Moreover, PAL has less of a relationship with catechin content. Therefore, we recommend tea clones with heterozygous CAPS profiles for the gene CHS2+RcaI for the further improvement in these clones.