Journal of Tea Science Research, 2025, Vol.15, No.1, 12-20 http://hortherbpublisher.com/index.php/jtsr 16 high-quality pangenomes and GWAS enable the identification of candidate genes for bud flush time and flavor and other characteristics, which are the foundation for the purposeful use of diverse germplasms in breeding programs (Zhang et al., 2020a; Kong et al., 2025) (Figure 2). This synergistic approach ensures the maintenance and utilization of genetic diversity while enabling precise trait improvement (Chen et al., 2023b). Figure 2 GWAS for agronomic traits in young bud (Adopted from Kong et al., 2025) 5.4 A new model of precise traditional breeding empowered by gene editing (CRISPR) Gene editing technologies, particularly CRISPR, offer unprecedented precision for in vivo editing of single genes for important traits. While still in its early days in tea, the integration of CRISPR with traditional breeding has the ability to rapidly add or enhance traits such as disease resistance, quality, and stress tolerance. The integration of CRISPR with traditional breeding, together with genomics and MAS, is a new model for precise and effective tea breeding (Xia et al., 2020; Li et al., 2023a). 6 Case Studies 6.1 Successful cases of tea quality trait improvement The integration of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and genomic prediction (GP) with traditional breeding has enabled the mapping of candidate genes and SNP markers that are associated with key quality-related metabolites, such as catechins and caffeine (Zhang et al., 2020b; Luo et al., 2024). For example, through RAD-seq and GWAS, precise predictions for catechin and caffeine at moderate levels have been achieved, allowing for more effective selection for good quality tea accessions and accelerating the breeding of high quality cultivars (Yamashita et al., 2020). Good quality pangenome resources have also facilitated the identification of allelic variants for flavor and bud flush timing, further augmenting genomics-assisted quality improvement (Chen et al., 2023a). 6.2 Technological integration pathways in developing resistant cultivars Multi-omics approaches, i.e., genomics and transcriptomics, have been utilized to identify disease and stress resistance molecular markers and candidate genes. Currently, these markers are used in marker-assisted selection (MAS) to complement traditional breeding to enable the production of cultivars with enhanced resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses. The use of SNP markers and QTL mapping has increased the effectiveness of resistance line selection, and coordination with single-cellomics and pangenomics in the future will be expected to improve resistance breeding (Meegahakumbura et al., 2018; Shen et al., 2024).
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