Tea, obtained from Camellia sinensis L. is one of the most important non-alcoholic beverages of the World. Continuous selection in favor of desirable traits has reduced natural genetic diversity in tea. Present study was conducted to estimate genetic diversity in a world collection of tea germplasm cultivated in Pakistan using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers. A total of 42 tea accessions were characterized using 21 RAPD primers. The data obtained from PCR analysis was used for making average genetic distances matrix based on Unweighted pair group method using arithmetic averages (UPGMA) and for construction of a dendrogram as well. A high amount of genetic diversity (G.D=0-100%) was estimated among the germplasm accessions. Accessions were clustered into 2 main groups and 2 subgroups according to conventional classification of tea taxa and geographical origin of the genotypes. Tea genotypes were also separated clearly according to their main taxa (i.e. C. sinensis and C. assamica) in the world. The results obtained, will help in establishing conservation strategies for tea in Pakistan. RAPD methodology proved practical for evaluation of genetic diversity and relationship among tea genotypes.












