scholarly journals CsTCPs regulate shoot tip development and catechin biosynthesis in tea plant (Camellia sinensis)

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuwei Yu ◽  
Penghui Li ◽  
Xuecheng Zhao ◽  
Mangmang Tan ◽  
Muhammad Zulfiqar Ahmad ◽  
...  

AbstractThe growth of leaves and biosynthesis of characteristic secondary metabolites are critically important for tea production and quality control. However, little is known about the coordinated regulation of leaf development and catechin biosynthesis in tea plants. Here, we reported that TCP TFs are involved in both catechin biosynthesis and leaf development. An integrated analysis of catechin profiling and CsTCP expression in different tissues of plants under various environmental conditions at different developmental stages indicated significant correlations between the transcript levels of CIN-type TCPs and catechin production. CIN-type CsTCP3 and CsTCP4 and PCF-type CsTCP14 interacted with the MYB-bHLH-WD40 repeat (MBW) complex by forming a CsTCP3-CsTT8 heterodimer and modulating the transactivation activity of the promoters of anthocyanin synthase (CsANS1) and anthocyanidin reductase (CsANR1). Four types of microRNA/target modules, miR319b/CsTCP3-4, miR164b/CsCUC, miR396/CsGRF-GIF, and miR165b/HD-ZIPIII ones, were also identified and characterized for their functions in the regulation of the development of tea plant shoot tips and leaf shape. The results of these modules were reflected by their different expression patterns in developing buds and leaves that had distinctly different morphologies in three different tea plant varieties. Their roles in the regulation of catechin biosynthesis were also further verified by manipulation of microRNA319b (miR319b), which targets the transcripts of CsTCP3 and CsTCP4. Thus, CsTCPs represent at least one of these important groups of TFs that can integrate tea plant leaf development together with secondary metabolite biosynthesis. Our study provides new insight into shoot tip development and catechin production in tea plants and lays a foundation for further mechanistic understanding of the regulation of tea plant leaf development and secondary metabolism.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yufeng Shi ◽  
Xiaolan Jiang ◽  
Linbo Chen ◽  
Wei-Wei Li ◽  
Sanyan Lai ◽  
...  

Flavonoids, including flavonol derivatives, are the main astringent compounds of tea and are beneficial to human health. Many researches have been conducted to comprehensively identify and characterize the phenolic compounds in the tea plant. However, the biological function of tea flavonoids is not yet understood, especially those accumulated in floral organs. In this study, the metabolic characteristics of phenolic compounds in different developmental stages of flower buds and various parts of the tea flower were investigated by using metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses. Targeted metabolomic analysis revealed varying accumulation patterns of different phenolic polyphenol compounds during flowering; moreover, the content of flavonol compounds gradually increased as the flowers opened. Petals and stamens were the main sites of flavone and flavonol accumulation. Compared with those of fertile flowers, the content of certain flavonols, such as kaempferol derivatives, in anthers of hybrid sterile flowers was significantly low. Transcriptomic analysis revealed different expression patterns of genes in the same gene family in tea flowers. The CsFLSb gene was significantly increased during flowering and was highly expressed in anthers. Compared with fertile flowers, CsFLSb was significantly downregulated in sterile flowers. Further functional verification of the three CsFLS genes indicated that CsFLSb caused an increase in flavonol content in transgenic tobacco flowers and that CsFLSa acted in leaves. Taken together, this study highlighted the metabolic properties of phenolic compounds in tea flowers and determined how the three CsFLS genes have different functions in the vegetative and reproductive organs of tea plants. Furthermore, CsFLSb could regulated flavonol biosynthesis in tea flowers, thus influencing fertility. This research is of great significance for balancing the reproductive growth and vegetative growth of tea plants.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (22) ◽  
pp. 12554
Author(s):  
Yongchen Yu ◽  
Yuxian Xing ◽  
Fengjing Liu ◽  
Xin Zhang ◽  
Xiwang Li ◽  
...  

Laccase (LAC) plays important roles in different plant development and defense processes. In this study, we identified laccase genes (CsLACs) in Camellia sinensis cv ‘Longjing43′ cultivars, which were classified into six subclades. The expression patterns of CsLACs displayed significant spatiotemporal variations across different tissues and developmental stages. Most members in subclades II, IV and subclade I exhibited contrasting expression patterns during leaf development, consistent with a trade-off model for preferential expression in the early and late developmental stages. The extensive transcriptional changes of CsLACs under different phytohormone and herbivore treatment were observed and compared, with the expression of most genes in subclades I, II and III being downregulated but genes in subclades IV, V and VI being upregulated, suggesting a growth and defense trade-off model between these subclades. Taken together, our research reveal that CsLACs mediate multi-perspective trade-offs during tea plant development and defense processes and are involved in herbivore resistance in tea plants. More in-depth research of CsLACs upstream regulation and downstream targets mediating herbivore defense should be conducted in the future.


Genes ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jikai Ma ◽  
Lingmin Wei ◽  
Jiayu Li ◽  
Huogen Li

The leaf, a photosynthetic organ that plays an indispensable role in plant development and growth, has a certain ability to adapt to the environment and exhibits tremendous diversity among angiosperms. Liriodendron chinense, an ancestral angiosperm species, is very popular in landscaping. The leaf of this species has two lobes and resembles a Qing Dynasty Chinese robe; thus, leaf shape is the most valuable ornamental trait of the tree. In this work, to determine the candidate genes associated with leaf development in L. chinense, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed to distinguish the developmental stages of tender leaves. Four stages were clearly separated, and transcriptome sequencing was performed for two special leaf stages. Altogether, there were 48.23 G clean reads in the libraries of the two leaf developmental stages, and 48,107 assembled unigenes were annotated with five databases. Among four libraries, 3118 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were enriched in expression profiles. We selected ten DEGs associated with leaf development and validated their expression patterns via quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) assays. Most validation results were closely correlated with the RNA-sequencing data. Taken together, we examined the dynamic process of leaf development and indicated that several transcription factors and phytohormone metabolism genes may participate in leaf shape development. The transcriptome data analysis presented in this work aims to provide basic insights into the mechanisms mediating leaf development, and the results serve as a reference for the genetic breeding of ornamental traits in L. chinense.


Planta ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 246 (6) ◽  
pp. 1139-1152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Guo ◽  
Yafei Guo ◽  
Pu Wang ◽  
Yu Wang ◽  
Dejiang Ni

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1934578X1501000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei-Wei Deng ◽  
Min Li ◽  
Chen-Chen Gu ◽  
Da-Xiang Li ◽  
Lin-Long Ma ◽  
...  

Caffeine, a purine alkaloid, is a major secondary metabolite in tea leaves. The demand for low caffeine tea is increasing in recent years, especially for health reasons. We report a novel grafted tea material with low caffeine content. The grafted tea plant had Camellia sinensis as scions and C. oleifera as stocks. The content of purine alkaloids was determined in the leaves of one-year-old grafted tea plants by HPLC. We also characterized caffeine synthase (CS), a key enzyme involved in caffeine biosynthesis in tea plants, at the expression level. The expression patterns of CS were examined in grafted and control leaves by Western blot, using a self-prepared polyclonal antibody with high specificity and sensitivity. The expression of related genes ( TCS1, tea caffeine synthase gene, GenBank accession No. AB031280; sAMS, SAM synthetase gene, AJ277206; TIDH, IMP dehydrogenase gene, EU106658) in the caffeine biosynthetic pathway was investigated by qRT-PCR. HPLC showed that the caffeine content was only 38% as compared with the non-grafted tea leaves. Immunoblotting analysis showed that CS protein decreased by half in the leaves of grafted tea plants. qRT-PCR revealed no significant changes in the expression of two genes in the upstream pathway ( sAMS and TIDH), while the expression of TCS1 was greatly decreased (50%). Taken together, these data revealed that the low caffeine content in the grafted tea leaves is due to low TCS1 expression and CS protein accumulation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (21) ◽  
pp. 11880
Author(s):  
Xiaolong Ji ◽  
Jing Ren ◽  
Yixin Zhang ◽  
Shaoyu Lang ◽  
Di Wang ◽  
...  

Cerasus humilis is a unique dwarf shrub and fruit color is an important trait in the species. In this study, we evaluated the transcriptomic and metabolomic profiles of the plant at different developmental stages to elucidate the mechanism underlying color formation. In a metabolomics analysis, 16 anthocyanin components were identified at four developmental stages, and high levels of cyanidin O-syringic acid and pelargonidin 3-O-beta-d-glucoside (callitephin chloride) were correlated with the reddening of the fruit peel. A co-expression analysis revealed that ANS and UFGT play key roles in pigmentation (PCC > 0.82). Additionally, transcriptome data showed that most anthocyanin biosynthetic genes and two MYB transcription factors were significantly up-regulated. QRT-PCR results for these differentially expressed genes were generally consistent with the high-throughput sequencing. Moreover, the overexpression of ChMYB1 (TRINITY_DN21536_c0_g1) in apple calli could contribute to the accumulation of anthocyanin. It was also found that UFGT (TRINITY_DN19893_c1_g5) and ChMYB1 (TRINITY_DN21536_c0_g1) have similar expression patterns. These findings provide insight into the mechanisms underlying anthocyanin accumulation and coloration during fruit peel development, providing a basis for the breeding of anthocyanin-rich C. humilis cultivars.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 3404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengjie Wang ◽  
Di Chen ◽  
Yucheng Zheng ◽  
Shan Jin ◽  
Jiangfan Yang ◽  
...  

The SQUAMOSA promoter binding protein (SBP)-box gene family is a plant-specific transcription factor family. This family plays a crucial role in plant growth and development. In this study, 20 SBP-box genes were identified in the tea plant genome and classified into six groups. The genes in each group shared similar exon-intron structures and motif positions. Expression pattern analyses in five different tissues demonstrated that expression in the buds and leaves was higher than that in other tissues. The cis-elements and expression patterns of the CsSBP genes suggested that the CsSBP genes play active roles in abiotic stress responses; these responses may depend on the abscisic acid (ABA), gibberellic acid (GA), and methyl jasmonate (MeJA) signaling pathways. Our work provides a comprehensive understanding of the CsSBP family and will aid in genetically improving tea plants.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaobo Xia ◽  
Xiaozeng Mi ◽  
Ling Jin ◽  
Rui Guo ◽  
Junyan Zhu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Branch angle is a pivotal component of tea plant architecture. Tea plant architecture not only affects tea quality and yield but also influences the efficiency of automatic tea plant pruning. However, the molecular mechanism controlling the branch angle, which is an important aspect of plant architecture, is poorly understood in tea plants. Results In the present study, three CsLAZY genes were identified from tea plant genome data through sequence homology analysis. Phylogenetic tree displayed that the CsLAZY genes had high sequence similarity with LAZY genes from other plant species, especially those in woody plants. The expression patterns of the three CsLAZYs were surveyed in eight tissues. We further verified the expression levels of the key CsLAZY1 transcript in different tissues among eight tea cultivars and found that CsLAZY1 was highly expressed in stem. Subcellular localization analysis showed that the CsLAZY1 protein was localized in the plasma membrane. CsLAZY1 was transferred into Arabidopsis thaliana to investigate its potential role in regulating shoot development. Remarkably, the CsLAZY1 overexpressed plants responded more effectively than the wild-type plants to a gravity inversion treatment under light and dark conditions. The results indicate that CsLAZY1 plays an important role in regulating shoot gravitropism in tea plants. Conclusions The results provide important evidence for understanding the functions of CsLAZY1 in regulating shoot gravitropism and influencing the stem branch angle in tea plants. This report identifies CsLAZY1 as a promising gene resource for the improvement of tea plant architecture.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Renjian Liu ◽  
Yuyuan Wang ◽  
Song Tang ◽  
Jiarong Cai ◽  
Shaoqun Liu ◽  
...  

AbstractLeaf trichomes play vital roles in plant resistance and the quality of tea. Basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors (TFs) play an important role in regulating plant development and growth. In this study, a total of 134 CsbHLH proteins were identified in the Camellia sinensis var. sinensis (CSS) genome. They were divided into 17 subgroups according to the Arabidopsis thaliana classification. Phylogenetic tree analysis indicated that members of subgroups IIIc-I and IIIc-II might be associated with trichome formation. The expression patterns of CsbHLH116, CsbHLH133, CsbHLH060, CsbHLH028, CsbHLH024, CsbHLH112 and CsbHLH053 from clusters 1, 3 and 5 were similar to the trichome distribution in tea plants. CsbHLH024 and CsbHLH133 were located in the cell nucleus and possessed transcriptional activation ability. They could interact with CsTTG1, which is a regulator of tea trichome formation. This study provides useful information for further research on the function of CsbHLHs in trichome formation.


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