Analysis of the effect of different withering methods on tea quality based on transcriptomics and metabolomics

Xiaoli Jia; Qi Zhang; Meihui Chen; Yuhua Wang; Shaoxiong Lin; Yibin Pan; Pengyuan Cheng; Mingzhe Li; Ying Zhang; Jianghua Ye; Haibin Wang

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1235687

Analysis of the effect of different withering methods on tea quality based on transcriptomics and metabolomics

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Sep 14:14:1235687. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1235687. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

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

Abstract

Withering is very important to the quality of Wuyi rock tea. In this study, transcriptomics and metabolomics were used to analyze the effects of different withering methods on tea quality formation. The results showed that sunlight withering (SW) was most beneficial in increasing the gene expression of ubiquinone and other terpenoid-quinone biosynthesis (ko00130), pyruvate metabolism (ko00620), starch and sucrose metabolism (ko00500), and tryptophan metabolism (ko00380) pathways, and increasing the content of nucleotides and derivatives, terpenoids, organic acids and lipids, thus enhancing the mellowness, fresh and brisk taste and aroma of tea. Withering trough withering (WW) was most beneficial in increasing the gene expression of glutathione metabolism (ko00480), phenylpropanoid biosynthesis (ko00940) pathways, increasing the content of phenolic acids and flavonoids, thus enhancing tea bitterness. A comprehensive evaluation of the metabolite content and taste characteristics of tea leaves showed SW to be the best quality and charcoal fire withering (FW) to be the worst quality. This study provided an important basis for guiding the processing of Wuyi rock tea with different flavors.

Keywords: Wuyi rock tea; gene expression; metabolite; quality; withering.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by National 948 project (2014-Z36), Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (2021J011137, 2020J01369, 2020J01408), Fujian Outstanding Research Talent Cultivation Project, National Program for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training of Students (202111312023X, 202211312002), Social Science Research Project of Fujian Provincial Education Department (JAT22115), Nanping City Science and Technology Plan Project (NP2021KTS06, N2021Z012, 2019J02), Wuyi University Science and Technology Innovation Development Fund (HX2018-47-01), Faculty and students co-creation team of Wuyi University (2021-SSTD-01, 2021-SSTD-05), Youth Top Talent Training Program of Longyan University (2019ZJ19), Ecology first-class discipline construction Project of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University.