Abstract: Leaf albino is a common phenomenon in the plant kingdom. As a kind of leaf-used plant, the key chemical ingredients in albino tea cultivars such as chlorophyll, carotenoids, catechins, amino acids, flavonoids are significantly changed as compared with normal tea cultivars, which largely affect the growth, stress resistances, production process and taste of tea. Leaf color mutation, as a special mutation, has important application value for tea breeding. It is also useful for our understanding of the photosynthesis system, the regulation mechanism of leaf color and the regulation of leaf development in tea plants. This article reviewed the research progress on the chemical compositions such as chlorophyll, carotenoids, amino acids and the mechanism of the mutation in the albino tea cultivars, which aimed to provide a foundation for further study of the molecular mechanism in albino tea cultivars.

Key words: tea plant (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze), albino variation, review