Complete chloroplast genomes of five classical Wuyi tea varieties (Camellia sinensis, Synonym: Thea bohea L.), the most famous Oolong tea in China

Abstract

Wuyi tea (Camellia. sinensis, Synonym: Thea Bohea L.) is recognized as the most prestigious oolong tea in China. For germplasm identification and protection, the complete chloroplast genomes of five classical Wuyi tea varieties were determined by next-generation sequencing. These chloroplast genomes showed highly conserved structures and are 157,024–157,126 bp in length, consisting of a pair of reverse repeats (IR) regions of 25,944–26,095 bp, one large single-copy (LSC) region of 86,594–86,859 bp, and one small single copy (SSC) region of 18,276–18,291 bp. A total of 137 genes were observed and overall GC contents were all about 37.3%. Phylogenetic analysis revealed Wuyi tea varieties did not cluster together, suggesting that these Wuyi tea varieties might have diverged early in their evolutionary history and the complete chloroplast genome could be used as a super-barcode to identify these varieties. This study will be valuable for future studies of evolution and intraspecific identification in Wuyi tea.