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Individuals in most countries around the world drink tea (Camellia sinensis). Tea drinking has attained ceremonial status in many places as a social and medicinal beverage. Although tea is of great importance in Turkey's economy, little is known about the pattern of genetic variation among the various tea genotypes grown in Turkey. A total of 32 tea genotypes found at the Ataturk Tea and Horticulture Research Institute in the eastern Black Sea region of Turkey were sampled. Fluorescent dye amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers and capillary electrophoresis were applied for molecular characterization. The AFLP analysis with six primer combinations generated 835 fragments of which 567 were polymorphic, corresponding to 69.8% polymorphism. Resolving powers of the AFLP primers ranged from 62.6 to 81.9, yielding a total of 437.8; the polymorphic information content (PIC) ranged from 0.76 to 0.83, with an average of 0.79. Genetic similarity values ranged from 0.68 to 0.92, with an average of 0.76. The dendrogram derived by unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean algorithm (UPGMA) and principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) revealed that all tea genotypes could be clearly divided into four distinct clusters. The results of this study will provide valuable information to the tea cultivar breeding program for the purpose of parental selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]