The tea plant reference genome and improved gene annotation using long-read and paired-end sequencing data.

Tea is a globally consumed non-alcohol beverage with great economic importance. However, lack of the reference genome has largely hampered the utilization of precious tea plant genetic resources towards breeding. To address this issue, we previously generated a high-quality reference genome of tea plant using Illumina and PacBio sequencing technology, which produced a total of 2,124 Gb short and 125 Gb long read data, respectively. A hybrid strategy was employed to assemble the tea genome that has been publicly released. We here described the data framework used to generate, annotate and validate the genome assembly. Besides, we re-predicted the protein-coding genes and annotated their putative functions using more comprehensive omics datasets with improved training models. We reassessed the assembly and annotation quality using the latest version of BUSCO. These data can be utilized to develop new methodologies/tools for better assembly of complex genomes, aid in finding of novel genes, variations and evolutionary clues associated with tea quality, thus help to breed new varieties with high yield and better quality in the future.

Effect of Modified Chaihu Guizhi Ganjiang Tang in Treating Chronic Cholecystitis of Gallbladder Heat / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Objective: To explore the clinical effect of modified Chaihu Guizhi Ganjiang Tang in the treatment of chronic cholecystitis with gallbladder heat and spleen cold syndrome. Method: Totally 129 cases with chronic cholecystitis treated in our hospital from March 2017 to July 2018 were selected as study objectives and randomly divided into observation group (65 cases)and control group (64 cases). After the shedding and exclusion cases were subtracted, 61 patients in observation group and 61 patients in control group actually completed this study. The routine treatment was provided to both groups, and modified Chaihu Guizhi Ganjiang Tang was additionally given to observation group. All of the cases received treatments for 3 weeks. The two groups' clinical effect, traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)syndrome scores, inflammatory factors[interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α] levels in serum, gallbladder function, gastrointestinal function indicators[motilin (MTL), vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP)] before and after treatments, as well as toxic side reaction were compared. Result: Totally 7 cases were lost during the study period. The overall effective rate of the observation group was 95.08%(58/61), which was significantly higher than 80.33%(49/61)of the control group (Pα concentrations after treatment were significantly lower than those before treatment (PPPConclusion: Modified Chaihu Guizhi Ganjiang Tang treats patients with chronic cholecystitis with bile heat and spleen cold syndrome by effectively relieving inflammatory response and accelerating the recovery of gastrointestinal function and gallbladder systolic function, with an exact curative effect and high patient tolerance.

Draft genome sequence of Camellia sinensis var. sinensis provides insights into the evolution of the tea genome and tea quality.

Tea, one of the world's most important beverage crops, provides numerous secondary metabolites that account for its rich taste and health benefits. Here we present a high-quality sequence of the genome of tea, Camellia sinensis var. sinensis (CSS), using both Illumina and PacBio sequencing technologies. At least 64% of the 3.1-Gb genome assembly consists of repetitive sequences, and the rest yields 33,932 high-confidence predictions of encoded proteins. Divergence between two major lineages, CSS and Camellia sinensis var. assamica (CSA), is calculated to ∼0.38 to 1.54 million years ago (Mya). Analysis of genic collinearity reveals that the tea genome is the product of two rounds of whole-genome duplications (WGDs) that occurred ∼30 to 40 and ∼90 to 100 Mya. We provide evidence that these WGD events, and subsequent paralogous duplications, had major impacts on the copy numbers of secondary metabolite genes, particularly genes critical to producing three key quality compounds: catechins, theanine, and caffeine. Analyses of transcriptome and phytochemistry data show that amplification and transcriptional divergence of genes encoding a large acyltransferase family and leucoanthocyanidin reductases are associated with the characteristic young leaf accumulation of monomeric galloylated catechins in tea, while functional divergence of a single member of the glutamine synthetase gene family yielded theanine synthetase. This genome sequence will facilitate understanding of tea genome evolution and tea metabolite pathways, and will promote germplasm utilization for breeding improved tea varieties.