Characterization and Phylogeny Analysis of Azerbaijan Tea ( Camellia sinensis L.) Genotypes by Molecular Markers

The tea is one of the most important products in the southern region of Azerbaijan Republic, and plays an essential role in the region’s economy. Assessing and describing genetic diversity in crop plants is a crucial first step toward their improvement. In this study the tea genotypes belonged southern region of Azerbaijan was studied using 10 random amplified polymorphic DNA in order to estimate their genetic diversity and to identify the relationships among their genotypes. The RAPD primers generated 132 amplification products and 113 of which were polymorphic. The polymorphic banding patterns with the number of amplified fragments varied from 4 (OPA-19) to 19 (OPAB-18). Percent polymorphism ranged from 50 to 95% with an average of 83.94%. The genetic similarity among the genotypes tested ranged 0.445 to 0.819 with an average of 0.512. The cluster analysis based on UPGMA and Jaccard similarity index revealed 5 main clusters for the RAPD data and the principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) supported the clustering result. According to our results, there is a relatively high genetic distance across tea genotypes in the southern of Azerbaijan Republic. Furthermore, it could be inferred that RAPD markers are suitable tools for the evaluation of genetic diversity and relationships within Camellia sinensis.