
India is a number one tea producing nation on the earth which contributes 23% of worldwide tea manufacturing and export of Indian tea earns 780 million USD each year. This eco-friendly Indian Tea Trade gives employment to 1.16 million Indians straight and equal quantity not directly. Nevertheless yield stagnation of this century previous tea plantation together with local weather change are main bottlenecks of Indian Tea Trade. Thus there’s a want of scientific intervention for rising the profitability of the tea business by the event of local weather good excessive yielding tea varieties for which genome info is required.
Aside from India, China can be a significant tea rising nation and one other main exporter of tea around the globe. Tea plant is originated in Indo-China border and botanically there are two sorts of tea plant which can be cultivated worldwide. One is brief leaved Chinese language tea (Camellia sinensis), cultivated in China, Japan and so on. and one other is lengthy leaved Assam tea (Camellia assamica), pre-dominantly present in India and later launched from India to many different nations reminiscent of in Sri Lanka, Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan and so on. Though Chinese language believed that tea plant is originated in China completely but Robert Bruce, a Briton found the indigenous tea bushes in North East India in early 18th century, producing a thriller of the origin of Indian tea.
Just lately, in a landmark discovery, a staff of scientist from totally different establishments of India lead by Prof Tapan Kumar Mondal have decoded the primary chromosome-scale genome sequence of India’s common Assam sort tea selection TV1 (Camellia assamica or C. sinensis var.assamica), marking a significant development in our understanding of tea genome straight together with the origin, domestication of Indian tea plant and generated a number of 1000’s of chromosome-wise DNA markers reminiscent of SSRs/SNPs which can be utilized to breed the brand new technology cultivar for Indian tea Trade.
Though at current there are greater than 500 tea cultivars in India however TV-1 was the primary and common cultivar developed manner again in 1949 by Mrs Tunstall, spouse of the Chief Scientific officer of Tocklai Experimental Station, Jorhat, Assam however nonetheless utilized in Indian Tea Trade. The unique plant is round 106 years previous whose genome has been decoded and maintained at Tocklai Experimental Station, Tea Analysis Affiliation, Jorhat, Assam. This research by Indian Scientist, printed just lately in a renounced journal, “Industrial Crops and Merchandise” (Elsevier Publication,), gives insights into how Indian sort tea was advanced, developed its distinctive traits, and synthesized caffeine, revealing the genetic diversifications that differentiate it from China sort tea (C sinensis var. sinensis).
The current work from Prof Mondal established the truth that Assam sort of Indian tea is originated in India and totally different from Chinese language tea. Chinese language tea researchers are at all times opposing a separate origin of tea plant for a few years. This breakthrough not solely revealed that Indian tea has separate origin and domestication however it additionally has vital implications for the Indian tea business, probably aiding tea breeders to develop local weather resilient, high-yielding, and high-quality tea varieties. Additional it’s also vital for Mental Property Proper reminiscent of Geographical Tag which can be granted to 4 totally different India tea robe in Assam, Darjeeling, Palampur and Ooty. It could additionally assist to forestall the piracy of Indian tea bushes to the neighboring tea rising nations.
This multi-institutional collaborative research was funded by Nationwide Tea Analysis Basis, Tea Board, India and lead by Dr Tapan Kumar Mondal, Principal Scientist of Indian Council of Agricultural Analysis- Nationwide Institute for Plant Biotechnology (NIPB), New Delhi in collaboration with Dr Sangeeta Borchetia and her staff of Tea Analysis Affiliation – Tocklai Tea Analysis Institute (TTRI) Jorhat, Dr R.Victor J. Ilango and his staff of United Planters Affiliation of South India, Tea Analysis Basis, Tea Analysis Institute, Tamil Nadu, Dr B. Bera and his staff of Darjeeling Tea Analysis and Improvement Centre, Tea Board, Darjeeling, West Bengal and Mr Soundararajan S and his staff of Nationwide Tea Analysis Basis, Kolkata, West Bengal. This partnership displays a concerted effort to advance analysis in tea cultivation and manufacturing, underscoring a dedication to enhancing the tea business by scientific innovation…
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