Journal of Tea Science Research, 2025, Vol.15, No.1, 12-20 http://hortherbpublisher.com/index.php/jtsr 12 Research Insight Open Access The Role of Traditional Breeding in Modern Tea Cultivar Development LianChen1, Lianming Zhang2 1 Institute of Life Sciences, Jiyang Colloge of Zhejiang A&F University, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China 2 Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Center, Cuixi Academy of Biotechnology, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China Corresponding author: lianming.zhang@cuixi.org Journal of Tea Science Research, 2025, Vol.15, No.1 doi: 10.5376/jtsr.2025.15.0002 Received: 11 Dec., 2024 Accepted: 12 Jan., 2025 Published: 30 Jan., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Chen and Zhang, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Chen L., and Zhang L.M., 2025, The role of traditional breeding in modern tea cultivar development, Journal of Tea Science Research, 15(1): 12-20 (doi: 10.5376/jtsr.2025.15.0002) Abstract Tea (Camellia sinensis) is a valuable crop of global economic importance, and cultivar breeding is essential to ensure the quality-based development of the tea industry. Classical breeding methods have given numerous reasons for the selection of tea cultivars and enabled the establishment of high-yielding, high-quality, and stress-enduring cultivars through seed selection, elite tree selection, hybrid breeding, and clonal propagation. However, its inherent disadvantages of long cycle and low efficiency have limited its ability to keep up with the requirements of precise trait improvement. With the rapid advance in molecular breeding technologies, the integration of traditional breeding with marker-assisted selection (MAS), genomic selection (GS), and gene editing (CRISPR) has emerged as a principal approach in modern tea breeding. This study systematically overviews the past achievements and developments of conventional tea breeding, describes its advantages and disadvantages in the current breeding system, and discusses integration methodologies and common cases of traditional and molecular breeding. It is suggested that future directions are to enhance breeding efficiency, develop germplasm application, and address such issues as climate change. Re-evaluation of the value of traditional breeding and its firm anchor with modern molecular technology will provide theoretical basis and practical directions for establishing a successful, precise, and sustainable tea breeding system. Keywords Tea breeding; Traditional breeding; Cultivar improvement; Molecular breeding; Precision breeding 1 Introduction Tea (Camellia sinensis) is among the most economically valuable and culturally diverse beverage crops on the globe. As global consumption continues to rise, the tea crop comes under intensifying pressure for cultivars to exhibit high yield, improved quality traits (taste, aroma, biochemical constitution), and biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. Moreover, demands from consumers for health-promoting constituents and specialty tea types (i.e., green, black, oolong) further increase the need for precise trait improvement in breeding programs. However, issues with long generation periods, limited genetic bases for commercial cultivars, and environmental unpredictability hinder the ability to address such shifting breeding requirements (Wang et al., 2020). Traditional breeding methods have been at the heart of the past evolution of tea production. Methods such as bulk selection, vegetative propagation of superior plants, and crossing have made possible the development and dissemination of numerous high-quality, high-yielding cultivars. Such methods have played a key role in the development of characters including leaf form, biochemical composition (e.g., catechins, theanine, caffeine content), disease resistance, and adaptation to specific agro-ecological zones. Well-known cultivars such as 'Longjing 43' and 'Fuding Dabaicha' are results of traditional breeding efforts, which continue to maintain the backbone of modern tea production systems(Chen et al., 2023a; Li, 2024). Molecular breeding techniques-marker-assisted selection (MAS), genomic selection (GS), and CRISPR/Cas-based genome editing-have revolutionized plant breeding in most crops over the last few years. Their utilization in tea is constrained by the fact that tea is a perennial crop, having a very big and complex genome, lacking functional genomics infrastructure, and long breeding cycles. Thus, there is a need to rejuvenate the invaluable contribution of traditional breeding techniques, which have associated with them the utmost phenotypic selection accuracy,
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