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Research will unravel the specialities of Assam teas, says an official
A genome study project initiated by the Tea Board of India, to establish the origins and speciality of Indian teas, has now reached an advanced stage.
The study is being conducted on Assam teas to establish it as a product of India.
“We hope to ready the report by early next year. It will be a base-study that will mainly unravel the specialities of Assam teas,” said Commerce Ministry official who was not willing to be named.
Tea Board Chairman Arun Ray said that Rs. 5 crore has been earmarked for this study.
Joydip Phukan, secretary of Tea Research Association, which is also involved in this project, said that the study involved decoding the TV 1 clone to find out its characteristics.
Partner institutes
There are six partner institutes in this project. The list includes the New Delhi-based National Tea Research Foundation and ICAR-National Research Centre for Plant Bio Technology, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bio Resource Technology Palampur Himachal Pradesh, Tea Research Institute, Jorhat (under TRA), UPASI, Coimbatore, and Darjeeling Tea Development Centrein Kurseong, Darjeeling. The study, which will establish Camelia assamica as an indigenous Indian variety, comes amid reports of a neighbouring country’s efforts to establish Darjeeling tea as a variety that is their own. “These reports do not worry us much,” Darjeeling Tea Association Secretary Kaushik Basu said, adding that Darjeeling tea is protected through a GI tag. The Commerce Ministry official said that the multi-institutional project on genome sequencing is extremely important for establishing the whole genetic make-up of India tea germplasm, in addition to molecular methods like DNA fingerprinting and DNA barcoding.
Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-business/genome-study-on-teas-at-advanced-stage/article25533905.ece
