Chen Lian¹ , 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
Author    Correspondence author
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

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.

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)

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.

Tea breeding; Traditional breeding; Cultivar improvement; Molecular breeding; Precision breeding