Integrated metabolomic and transcriptomic analysis reveal the effect of mechanical stress on sugar metabolism in tea leaves (Camellia sinensis) post-harvest

PeerJ. 2023 Feb 8:11:e14869. doi: 10.7717/peerj.14869. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Sugar metabolites not only act as the key compounds in tea plant response to stress but are also critical for tea quality formation during the post-harvest processing of tea leaves. However, the mechanisms by which sugar metabolites in post-harvest tea leaves respond to mechanical stress are unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of mechanical stress on saccharide metabolites and related post-harvest tea genes. Withered (C15) and mechanically-stressed (V15) for 15 min Oolong tea leaves were used for metabolome and transcriptome sequencing analyses. We identified a total of 19 sugar metabolites, most of which increased in C15 and V15. A total of 69 genes related to sugar metabolism were identified using transcriptome analysis, most of which were down-regulated in C15 and V15. To further understand the relationship between the down-regulated genes and sugar metabolites, we analyzed the sucrose and starch, galactose, and glycolysis metabolic pathways, and found that several key genes of invertase (INV), α-amylase (AMY), β-amylase (BMY), aldose 1-epimerase (AEP), and α-galactosidase (AGAL) were down-regulated. This inhibited the hydrolysis of sugars and might have contributed to the enrichment of galactose and D-mannose in V15. Additionally, galactinol synthase (Gols), raffinose synthase (RS), hexokinase (HXK), 6-phosphofructokinase 1 (PFK-1), and pyruvate kinase (PK) genes were significantly upregulated in V15, promoting the accumulation of D-fructose-6-phosphate (D-Fru-6P), D-glucose-6-phosphate (D-glu-6P), and D-glucose. Transcriptome and metabolome association analysis showed that the glycolysis pathway was enhanced and the hydrolysis rate of sugars related to hemicellulose synthesis slowed in response to mechanical stress. In this study, we explored the role of sugar in the response of post-harvest tea leaves to mechanical stress by analyzing differences in the expression of sugar metabolites and related genes. Our results improve the understanding of post-harvest tea's resistance to mechanical stress and the associated mechanism of sugar metabolism. The resulting treatment may be used to control the quality of Oolong tea.

Keywords: Mechanical stress; Metabolome; Sugar metabolism; Transcriptome.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Camellia sinensis* / genetics
  • Galactose / metabolism
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Stress, Mechanical
  • Sugars / metabolism
  • Tea / metabolism
  • Transcriptome / genetics

Substances

  • Galactose
  • Tea
  • Sugars

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Earmarked Fund for China Agriculture Research System (CARS-19), the fujian Province Modern Agricultural (Tea) Industry Technology System Special Project ([2021] No. 637), the fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Tea Industry Chain Science and Technology Innovation and Service System Construction Project (K1520005A06), and the Special Fund for Science and Technology Innovation of Fujian Zhang Tianfu Tea Development Foundation (FJZTF01-FJZTF03). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.