Research progress on isolation and cloning of functional genes in tea plants

Tea, which has many sanitarian functions, is one of the most popular non-alcoholic soft and healthy beverages in the world. In many countries, as well as in China, tea (Camellia sinensis) is an important cash crop. It has great value as a source of secondary metabolic products. Molecular biology of tea plants has been one of the most active and kinetic research fields of tea science for the last decade. Isolation and cloning of important functional genes of tea plants have a critical significance on elucidating the molecular mechanism of high quality, yield and resistance, as well as genetic manipulating via biotechnological approaches for tea plants. In this paper, we introduced the research progress on the isolation and cloning of functional genes in tea plants. In addition, the brief prospect on the research of functional genes of tea plants in the near future is also give out. __________ Translated from Molecular Plant Breeding, 2006, 4(3S): 16–22 译自: 分子植物育种]