Tea Plant Chloroplast and Mitochondrial Genome

Nuclear genomes, chloroplast genomes, and mitochondrial genomes are three types of genomes in plant cells. The latter two are widely used in the study of phylogenetic evolution of species, origin of crop domestication, crop improvement, and application of genetic engineering due to their uniparental genetic properties. Benefitting from the development of high-throughput sequencing technology, the sequencing of chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes has seen large growth. Currently, more than 80 chloroplast genomes and 5 mitochondrial genomes of tea plants are available on NCBI and other web sources. Herein, the structural features, genes, repeat sequences, and RNA-editing sites of chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes of tea plants were described, and their applications in phylogenetic studies of tea plants were reviewed. Meanwhile, the problems identified in the current studies and the subsequent aspects that need to be strengthened are proposed.