A tiny seed holds immense potential. An outstanding plant variety can bring immeasurable value. Recently, we visited the National Tea Germplasm Repository to uncover the “treasure genes” hidden within tea resources.

National Tea Germplasm Repository

The National Tea Germplasm Repository is located in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, and houses nearly 3,000 samples of tea germplasm from around the world. These precious resources are preserved here in living form. For some large-Leaf tea resources from Yunnan and overseas, to survive the winter, they are protected inside greenhouses.

According to Dr. Jin Jiqiang, an associate researcher at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) Tea Research Institute, the germplasm repository is more than just a simple storage facility. It carries many responsibilities, including secure storage of resources, identification and evaluation of resources, and most importantly, discovering and utilizing outstanding materials from these resources for breeding purposes. With these high-quality base materials, our breeding process can benefit from better genes, allowing us to cultivate even more superior plant varieties.

National Tea Germplasm Repository

At the National Tea Germplasm Repository, we saw the famous Longjing 43 mother tree. It is known that in the early days of the CAAS Tea Research Institute, to improve the quality and productivity of Longjing tea, senior tea experts selected the Longjing 43 from the Longjing tea trees in the Yunqi Mountain area of Hangzhou. This mother tree was subsequently transplanted here.

Longjing 43 Mother Tree

The Longjing 43 is a superior single plant of tea selected on a large scale by the CAAS Tea Research Institute in 1960. After cultivation, it evolved into a tea variety with excellent overall performance. Its standout features include early budding, high yield, and exceptional quality, making it a tea variety with superior traits. In 1978, it won the National Science Conference Award, and in 1987, it was recognized as a national variety. Today, it is one of the most widely planted tea varieties in China and is highly favored by tea farmers.

However, the optimization of tea varieties never stops. As society's standard of living improves, consumers' demands for tea varieties continue to change. “In the past, we pursued high-yielding and high-quality varieties like Longjing 43; in the future, we will seek more diverse varieties, such as those with higher functional components or those suitable for poor soils,” said Dr. Jin Jiqiang.

CAAS Tea Research Institute Tea Breeding Garden

The existing tea varieties do not possess these outstanding genes. Therefore, scientists need to screen and identify materials with these superior genes from a vast array of wild resources and local varieties and genetically improve them with traditional varieties to cultivate tea varieties with higher nutrient efficiency, higher functional components, or special uses (such as for tea powder).

Only by fully tapping into the potential of tea germplasm resources can we breed more and better tea varieties that meet the needs of the industry in the future.

Produced by: Popular Science China Smart Farmers

Scientific Review: Dr. Jin Jiqiang (Associate Researcher, CAAS Tea Research Institute)

Acknowledgments: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Tea Research Institute