Bioscience Methods 2025, Vol.16, No.6, 289-298 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/bm 291 As for the fineness of regulation, the participation of miRNA may be the most notable aspect. Molecules like csn-miR398a-3p-1 and cs-miR397a can inhibit or activate some key genes at critical moments, such as regulating the expression of SOD or laccase, helping tea plants respond more flexibly to environmental challenges (Zhu et al., 2023). Figure 1 Putative interaction network of CsFHY3/FAR1s in tea plants. The homologous proteins in tea plants and Arabidopsis are shown in red and black, respectively (Adopted from Liu et al., 2021) 3 Comparison of Conventional and Modern Molecular Breeding Approaches 3.1 Limitations of hybrid breeding and resistance resource introduction In traditional tea tree breeding, hybridization has long been a method adopted, theoretically improving traits by combining the advantages of different parents. But it's easier said than done. Due to some inherent characteristics of tea plants, such as their long life cycle and perennial nature, each round of breeding takes an extremely long time. If the affinity between distant parents is poor, it will be even more troublesome to achieve successful hybridization. The seeds cannot produce, the fruit drop rate is high, and the germination rate is also poor (Mo et al., 2025). In addition, the introduction of wild germplasm was originally intended to enhance resistance, but it may accidentally bring in some "side effects" - such as reduced quality and reduced yield. What is more troublesome is that in the actual breeding process, the two goals of high resistance and high quality are often difficult to achieve simultaneously. Most newly cultivated materials may not gain an advantage in either aspect, being neither disease-resistant nor pleasing to the market. 3.2 Application of marker-assisted selection (MAS) in screening for resistance In contrast, molecular marker-assisted selection (MAS) appears to be more efficient and reliable. It does not rely on naked-eye observation. Instead, by detecting DNA fragments associated with target resistance genes, such as markers like SSR and SNP, it can screen out resistant individuals at the seedling stage or even the seed stage (Karunarathna et al., 2020; Li et al., 2023). This bypasses the interference caused by environmental fluctuations,
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