Camellia sinensis var. assamica
     Asam tea / 大叶茶/普洱茶

Taxonomy: Angiosperms / Eudicots / Asterids / Ericales / Theaceae

Introduction

1. Camellia sinensis var. assamica is native to East Asia, the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, but it is today cultivated across the world in tropical and subtropical regions.
2. Camellia sinensis var. assamica is a species of evergreen shrub or small tree whose leaves and leaf buds are used to produce tea.
3. The name Camellia is taken from the Latinized name of Rev. Georg Kamel.
4. Tea has been studied extensively for its potential to lower the risk of human diseases.
5. Caffeine is a molecule produced in Camellia sinensis var. assamica and functions as a secondary metabolite.
6. There are hundreds, if not thousands of cultivars of Camellia sinensis var. assamica.

Genome statistics

Varietyvar. assamica / Yunkang 10
Genome-sequencing depth159.43x
Assembled genome size2.86 Gbp
No. of scaffolds37,618
Total length of scaffolds3,021,230,785 bp
N50 of scaffolds449,457 bp
Longest scaffolds3,505,831 bp
No. of contigs258,790
Total length of contigs 2,575,242,646 bp
N50 of contigs19,958 bp
Longest contigs257,648 bp
Predicted coverage of the assembled sequences100%
GC content of the genome42.31%
Chromosome number2n=30
Protein-coding genes36,951
Sequencing technologyIllumina HiSeq2000

Reference

Xia, E. H. et al. The Tea Tree Genome Provides Insights into Tea Flavor and Independent Evolution of Caffeine Biosynthesis. Mol. Plant 10, 866-877 (2017)