Study on the effect of magnesium on leaf metabolites, growth and quality of tea tree

Ying Zhang; Qi Zhang; Yuhua Wang; Shaoxiong Lin; Meihui Chen; Pengyuan Cheng; Mengru Du; Xiaoli Jia; Jianghua Ye; Haibin Wang

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1192151

Study on the effect of magnesium on leaf metabolites, growth and quality of tea tree

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Sep 8:14:1192151. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1192151. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Ying Zhang^{1

2}, Qi Zhang¹, Yuhua Wang³, Shaoxiong Lin⁴, Meihui Chen^{1

2}, Pengyuan Cheng³, Mengru Du¹, Xiaoli Jia¹, Jianghua Ye¹, Haibin Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Tea and Food, Wuyi University, Wuyishan, China.
² College of Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China.
³ College of Life Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China.
⁴ College of Life Science, Longyan University, Longyan, China.

Abstract

Magnesium (Mg) is one of the essential elements for the growth of tea trees. In this study, we investigated changes in metabolites, photosynthetic fluorescence parameters and quality indexes of tea leaves under different concentrations of magnesium treatment, and the results showed that there were no significant differences in the quantity and total content of metabolites in tea leaves under different Mg concentrations. The results of volcano map analysis showed that the content of 235 metabolites in tea leaves showed an increasing trend and the content of 243 metabolites showed a decreasing trend with the increase of Mg concentration. The results of the combined analysis of the OPLS-DA model and bubble map showed that 45 characteristic metabolites were screened at different concentrations of Mg. Among these, the content of 24 characteristic metabolites showed an increasing trend and 21 characteristic metabolites showed a decreasing trend with the increase of Mg concentrations. The results of KEEG pathway enrichment showed that 24 characteristic metabolites with a upward trend were significantly enriched in saccharides metabolism, nucleic acid metabolism and vitamin metabolism, while the 21 characteristic metabolites with a downward trend were enriched in the synthesis of plant secondary metabolites, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, biosynthesis of terpenoids, synthesis and metabolism of alkaloids, and synthesis and metabolism of amino acids. It can be inferred that Mg regulation was beneficial to enhance the photosynthetic capacity of tea trees, improve the accumulation and metabolism of carbohydrate substances in tea trees, and thus promoted the growth of tea trees, but was not conducive to the synthesis of secondary metabolites and amino acids related to tea quality. The results of photosynthetic fluorescence parameters and quality indexes of the tea tree confirmed the conclusion predicted by metabolomics. This study provided a reference for regulating of the growth and quality of tea trees with Mg fertilizer in tea plantations.

Keywords: magnesium; metabolomics; photosynthesis; quality; tea tree.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2016M600493), National 948 project (2014-Z36), Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (2020J01369, 2020J01408, 2022J01139), Fujian Outstanding Research Talent Cultivation Project, National Program for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training of Students (202111312023X, 202211312002), Nanping City Science and Technology Plan Project (NP2021KTS06), Faculty and students co-creation team of Wuyi University (2021-SSTD-01, 2021-SSTD-05), Youth Top Talent Training Program of Longyan University (2019ZJ19), Science and Technology Innovation Specialty of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (KFb22046XA), Ecology first-class discipline construction Project of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University.