2.1 Plant material
Several cultivars of tea plants, including C. sinensis var. sinensis “Shuchazao (SCZ),” “Zhongcha108 (ZC108),” “Longjingchangye (LJCY),” “Fudingdabai (FDDB),” and “Yingshuang (YS),” were collected from the Tea Plant Cultivar and Germplasm Resource Garden of Anhui Agricultural University (Guohe Town, China) and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen. All the tea samples were stored at –80°C until use.