Crop Science and Agriculture

Tea, the product of the leaf of Camellia sinensis, is the world’s most highly consumed beverage and is an interesting study system for the genomic and metabolomic analysis of crop quality traits. We have taken advantage of the recent sequencing of the tea genome to pursue transcriptome studies of tea leaf development and plant microbiome interactions. The results indicate that a fairly small number of genes are unique to tea leaf development, compared to Camellia oleifera, a close relative that produces a leaf that is not suitable for high quality tea production. Additional results will be presented regarding the composition and stability of the tea genome, relating to the distribution of tea genetic diversity and concerning how the soil and leaf microbiomes infl uence tea agronomic and quality traits.