Phylogenetic relationships among tea cultivars based on AFLP analysis

Several modifications of the AFLP protocol were made to simplify the analysis, i.e., the amount of the reagents for restriction digestion, ligation of adaptors, preamplification and selective amplification, the primers without labeling, and the gel staining with ethidium bromide. The phylogenetic relationships among 37 accessions of the genus Camellia were assessed using the modified AFLP technique and cluster analysis. The accessions, 24 Japanese tea cultivars, seven Korean wild tea varieties and six Camellia species closely related to tea, were clustered into five groups; Japanese tea cultivars closely related to 'Yabukita', those not closely related to 'Yabukita', Chinese tea cultivars and Korean wild tea varieties, Assam type black tea cultivars, and Camellia species closely related to tea. The results of this study indicated that the morphological characteristics and the origins of the tea cultivars were well reflected in the clustering of the cultivars based on the AFLP analysis, and that the AFLP technique might find its use as an efficient and effective tool for determining phylogenetic relationships among tea cultivars.