Comparative Study on the Chloroplast RPL32-TRNL Nucleotide Variation within and Genetic Differentiation among Ancient Tea Plantations of Camellia sinensis var.assamica and C.taliensis (Theaceae) from Yunnan,China

In order to assess genetic diversity and population structure, nine Camellia sinensis var.assamica and three C.taliensis populations from Yunnan, China were evaluated. Based on nucleotide variation of 94 cpDNA RPL32-TRNL sequences, a total of seven distinct haplotypes were detected in the studied populations. It was apparent that C.sinensis var.assamica (h=0.728，π =0.00469) possessed higher levels of genetic diversity than C.taliensis (h =0.610, π =0.00225). However, genetic differentiation among populations of C.sinensis varassamica (Gst=0.580, FST=0.612) was lower than that among C.taliensis populations (Gst=0.696, FST=0.773). Our AMOVA analysis further revealed that the majority of variation was partitioned among populations of the two taxa, while C.sinensis var.assamica (6121%) showed lower level of genetic differentiation than C.taliensis (77.34%). In comparisons to C.taliensis, genetic diversity within C.sinensis var.assamica largely varied among populations, ranging from 0 to 0.809 and from 0 to 0.00487 for haplotype and nucleotide diversity, respectively. Conservation strategies were finally discussed and proposed to efficiently protect ancient tea plantations in China.