Gibberellin Increases the Bud Yield and Theanine Accumulation in Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze.

Tea (Camellia sinensis) is one of the most important cash crops in the world. Theanine, as an important amino acid component in tea, is a key quality index for excellent tea quality and high economic value. People increase theanine accumulation in tea mainly through the application of nitrogen fertilizer, shading and pruning. However, these methods are not effective. In this study, we treated tea buds with a 100 µM solution of GA3 containing 1‰ tween-20, investigated the effects of GA3 on theanine accumulation, bud yield, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters and expression level of theanine biosynthesis pathway genes in tea plant by qPCR, LC-MS/MS etc. Results showed that change trends of theanine and GA3 was extremely positively correlated with each other. Exogenous GA3 upregulated the expression level of theanine biosynthesis pathway genes, caused an increase of theanine content (mg·g-1) by 27% in tea leaves compared with Mock, and accelerated the germination of buds and elongation of shoots, which lead to a significant increase of tea yield by 56% (w/w). Moreover, the decrease of chlorophyll contents, photochemical quenching coefficient (qP) and relative electron transport rate (rETR) under GA3 treatment suggested that GA3 reduced photosynthesis in the tender tea leaves, indicating that the decline of carbon assimilation in tea plants was conducive to the nitrogen metabolism, and it was beneficial to the accumulation of theanine. This study provided a new technical and theoretical support for the precise control of tea quality components and phenophase.

Systemic identification and analyses of genes potentially involved in chemosensory in the devastating tea pest Basilepta melanopus.

Basilepta melanopus is a serious insect pest of tea plantations in southern China. This tea pest poses a great threat to the tea industry in China. No effective and environmentally friendly methods have been established to control this pest at present. Olfactory genes play key roles in insect behaviour, and can potentially be used as targets for developing environmentally-friendly approaches for pest control. In this study, we produced a transcriptome derived from dissected antennae from B. melanopus using high-throughput sequencing. We identified gene families that are potentially involved in odorant reception and detection, including unigenes encoding 63 odorant receptors (ORs), 16 gustatory receptors (GRs), 18 ionotropic receptors (IRs), four sensory neuron membrane proteins (SNMPs), 46 odorant binding proteins (OBPs), and 19 chemosensory proteins (CSPs). Analyses of tissue expression profiles revealed that all 63 OR transcripts, 14 antennal IRs, one SNMP and six OBPs were predominately expressed in antennae. Real-time quantitative PCR assays were also adapted to examine sex-biased expression of selected antenna-predominant genes. Our results provide valuable information for further functional studies of olfactory genes in B. melanopus and potential novel targets for developing new pest control measures.

Transcriptome and metabolite analysis identifies nitrogen utilization genes in tea plant (Camellia sinensis).

Applied nitrogen (N) fertilizer significantly increases the leaf yield. However, most N is not utilized by the plant, negatively impacting the environment. To date, little is known regarding N utilization genes and mechanisms in the leaf production. To understand this, we investigated transcriptomes using RNA-seq and amino acid levels with N treatment in tea (Camellia sinensis), the most popular beverage crop. We identified 196 and 29 common differentially expressed genes in roots and leaves, respectively, in response to ammonium in two tea varieties. Among those genes, AMT, NRT and AQP for N uptake and GOGAT and GS for N assimilation were the key genes, validated by RT-qPCR, which expressed in a network manner with tissue specificity. Importantly, only AQP and three novel DEGs associated with stress, manganese binding, and gibberellin-regulated transcription factor were common in N responses across all tissues and varieties. A hypothesized gene regulatory network for N was proposed. A strong statistical correlation between key genes' expression and amino acid content was revealed. The key genes and regulatory network improve our understanding of the molecular mechanism of N usage and offer gene targets for plant improvement.

[Determination of the fingerprint attribution ratio and process recovery of medicinal effectiveness components for TCM-compound prescription with quantified fingerprint method].

By setting up the organic additive model of chemical fingerprints of TCM-compound, the quantified fingerprint method had been established to solve the qualitative and quantitative analyses problems for both the fingerprint attribution ratio and process recovery of medicinal effective components in TCM-compound prescription. The method firstly performs the qualitative analyses of the attribution ratios, and then the quantitative analyses, which can successfully disclose the results of attribution ratio and determine the process recovery of the medicinal effective components for TCM-compound prescription. Three optional methods were represented to assess the amount and distribution proportion of chemical compositions for single crude drug to compound prescription. In terms of components absorbed ultraviolet light, S5 (Radix Scutellariae) was assessed to be the most important crude drug containing much more effective components, and S7 (Radix Gentianae), S4 (Flos Lonicerae Japonica), S8 (Rhizome Anemarrhena) and S9 (Fructus Gardeniae) were second important crude drugs. The results showed lower process recovery of the medicinal effective components for eight batches of marketed preparations. Above all, the quantified fingerprint method can objectively and accurately reflect how high is the contribution of a single crude drug to the compound prescription, and quantitatively evaluate the process recovery of medicinal effectiveness components.

Determination of the fingerprint attribution ratio and process recovery of medicinal effectiveness components for TCM-compound prescription with quantified fingerprint method / 药学学报

By setting up the organic additive model of chemical fingerprints of TCM-compound, the quantified fingerprint method had been established to solve the qualitative and quantitative analyses problems for both the fingerprint attribution ratio and process recovery of medicinal effective components in TCM-compound prescription. The method firstly performs the qualitative analyses of the attribution ratios, and then the quantitative analyses, which can successfully disclose the results of attribution ratio and determine the process recovery of the medicinal effective components for TCM-compound prescription. Three optional methods were represented to assess the amount and distribution proportion of chemical compositions for single crude drug to compound prescription. In terms of components absorbed ultraviolet light, S5 (Radix Scutellariae) was assessed to be the most important crude drug containing much more effective components, and S7 (Radix Gentianae), S4 (Flos Lonicerae Japonica), S8 (Rhizome Anemarrhena) and S9 (Fructus Gardeniae) were second important crude drugs. The results showed lower process recovery of the medicinal effective components for eight batches of marketed preparations. Above all, the quantified fingerprint method can objectively and accurately reflect how high is the contribution of a single crude drug to the compound prescription, and quantitatively evaluate the process recovery of medicinal effectiveness components.