title: Molecular evidence for maternal inheritance of the chloroplast genome in tea, Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Tea is the most consumed beverage worldwide after water. Yet very little is known about the genetics of tea in comparison with other crop species. Here we have taken advantage of the polymorphic nature of microsatellite DNA to investigate the mode of chloroplast inheritance in tea, Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze. This is important for the correct interpretation of phylogeny and introgression data as well as assessing the suitability of chloroplast transformation as a means for transgene containment in tea.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study was based on six Japanese tea cultivars, namely Aj2, CK23, Hatsumomiji, Nka05, Yamanoibuki and Kanayamidori used to generate four informative families. The parental pairs in the crosses differed at a single chlroroplast locus with respect to an imperfect microsatellite repeat of 16 nucleotide bases. In agreement with earlier cytological studies, all 61 progeny displayed a cpDNA profile that was consistent with the maternal inheritance of chloroplasts in tea.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The data generated here provide the first molecular evidence of the plastid inheritance in tea. However, we suggest that additional families and polymorphic markers be screened for increasing the confidence in the observed maternal inheritance of chloroplasts in this important crop species.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science, 2769 Kanaya, 428-8501 Shizuoka, Japan. deepak.kaundun@syngenta.com
authors.forename: Shiv Shankhar
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Kaundun
authors.forename: Satoru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D028241:Camellia sinensis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000235:genetics*; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017353:Gene Deletion; D056426:Genetic Loci; D005819:Genetic Markers; D054628:Genome, Chloroplast; D006239:Haplotypes; D040582:Inheritance Patterns; D007564:Japan; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant; D005819:Genetic Markers