Positive plant–soil feedback depends on beneficial interactions between roots and microbes for nutrient acquisition; growth promotion; and disease suppression. Recent pyrosequencing approaches have provided insight into the rhizosphere bacterial communities in various cropping systems. However; there is a scarcity of information about the influence of root exudates on the composition of root-associated bacterial communities in ratooning tea monocropping systems of different ages. In Southeastern China; tea cropping systems provide the unique natural experimental environment to compare the distribution of bacterial communities in different rhizo-compartments. High performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–mass spectrometry (HPLC–ESI–MS) was performed to identify and quantify the allelochemicals in root exudates. A high-throughput sequence was used to determine the structural dynamics of the root-associated bacterial communities. Although soil physiochemical properties showed no significant differences in nutrients; long-term tea cultivation resulted in the accumulation of catechin-containing compounds in the rhizosphere and a lowering of pH. Moreover; distinct distribution patterns of bacterial taxa were observed in all three rhizo-compartments of two-year and 30-year monoculture tea; mediated strongly by soil pH and catechin-containing compounds. These results will help to explore the reasons why soil quality and fertility are disturbed in continuous ratooning tea monocropping systems; and to clarify the associated problems.

In conventional tea plantations, a large amount of pruned material returns to the soil surface, putting a high quantity of polyphenols into the soil. The accumulation of active allelochemicals in the tea rhizosphere and subsequent shift in beneficial microbes may be the cause of acidification, soil sickness, and regeneration problem, which may be attributed to hindrance of plant growth, development, and low yield in long-term monoculture tea plantation. However, the role of pruning leaf litter in soil sickness under consecutive tea monoculture is unclear. Here, we investigated soil samples taken from conventional tea gardens of different ages (2, 15, and 30 years) and under the effect of regular pruning. Different approaches including liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis of the leaf litter, metagenomic study of root-associated bacterial communities, and in vitro interaction of polyphenols with selected bacteria were applied to understand the effect of leaf litter-derived polyphenols on the composition and structure of the tea rhizosphere microbial community. Our results indicated that each pruning practice returns a large amount of leaf litter to each tea garden. LC-MS results showed that leaf litter leads to the accumulation of various allelochemicals in the tea rhizosphere, including epigallocatechin gallate, epigallocatechin, epicatechin gallate, catechin, and epicatechin with increasing age of the tea plantation. Meanwhile, in the tea garden grown consecutively for 30 years (30-Y), the phenol oxidase and peroxidase activities increased significantly. Pyrosequencing identified Burkholderia and Pseudomonas as the dominant genera, while plant growth-promoting bacteria, especially Bacillus, Prevotella, and Sphingomonas, were significantly reduced in the long-term tea plantation. The qPCR results of 30-Y soil confirmed that the copy numbers of bacterial genes per gram of the rhizosphere soil were significantly reduced, while that of Pseudomonas increased significantly. In vitro study showed that the growth of catechin-degrading bacteria (e.g., Pseudomonas) increased and plant-promoting

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Tea is an economic shrubby plant in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. To obtain high yield in tea cultivation, chemical fertilizer application rates have generally been used. However, a large quantity of chemical fertilizer application in a long-term continuously ratooned and monoculture tea orchard can inevitably lead to soil acidification and a decline in fertility. Therefore, the restoration of soil fertility and the sustainable development of tea planting by organic ways are critical for the tea industry. In this study, field trials were conducted in the tea orchard that was continuously ratooned and mono-cultured for 20 years. Nitrogen fertilizer (NF), Laredo soybeans green manure (LF), and goat manure (GM) treatments were applied to restore optimum acidity, soil fertility, microbial activity, and the community structure of a long-term continuously monoculture tea orchard. This paper investigated that the pH value was increased from 4.23 to 4.32 in GM and LF, respectively. Similarly, the content of exchangeable acidity (EA) was decreased by 1.21 and 1.46 cmol·kg−1 in GM and LF, respectively. Available nutrient results indicated that the content of NH4+-N was increased by 3.96, 4.38, NO3−-N by 1.07, 2.16, AP by 3.46, 6.86, AK by 0.26, 0.3 mg kg−1 in GM and LF treatments, respectively. Enzyme analysis revealed that the activity of urease and sucrase was promoted by 7.98 mg·g−1·24 h−1 and 6.77 mg·g−1·24 h−1, respectively, in LF treatment. Likewise, the activity of acid phosphatase and polyphenol oxidase was sharply increased by 2.3 mg·g−1 h−1 and 63.07 mg·g−1 h−1 in LF treatments. Additionally, the activity of urease, sucrase, acidic phosphatase, polyphenol oxidase, and peroxidase were also significantly increased by applying GM treatments. Meanwhile, LF and GM treatments significantly improved soil microbial biomass as well as low weight organic acid content in degraded tea rhizosphere. Furthermore, high throughput sequence results illustrated that the relative abundance of Rhizobiaceae and Bradyrhizobiaceae families increased in LF and GM treatments, respectively, which are mostly a kind of nitrogen fixer and plant growth promoting bacteria. Taken together, the physiological traits of the new sprouts and the biochemical components of new tea leaves were also significantly improved by GM and LF treatments. From this study, it is concluded that LF and GM are good agriculture management practices, which promote plant growth, yield, and nutrient availability by maintaining and improving pH, enhancing available nutrients status, improving the secretion of low molecular weight organic acids, and balancing the microbial community structure in the long-term mono-cultured tea orchard.

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Chinese people have consistentlypreferred high mountain tea because specific flavors are memorable for them, and also, people have traditionally considered this type of tea to be good for health. Tieguanyin is one of the famous traditional Chinese tea that has ever-changing aromas. To illustrate the various characteristics in volatile fragment compounds from Tieguanyin tea, fresh tea leaves collected from different elevations (450, 650, and 900 m) were detected using GC-MS by solid-liquid extraction. The results showed that volatile aromatic compounds, such as benzyl alcohol, phenyl ethanol, and acetophenone, were the most abundant in tea leaves located with high elevation. Meanwhile, 1hexanol, 1-nananol, and nanoic acid, as a type of aliphatic aroma, were more prevalent in low-elevation tea orchards. Catechols and alkaloids are largely cumulated in low-and high-elevation tea leaves, respectively. Our findings also showed that elemene was widely consisted of high-elevation tea metabolites. It provided practicality for the preparation of tea manufacturing in major Tieguanyin tea-producing regions.

Polygonatum odoratum (Mill.) Druce (POD) is a natural plant widely used for food and medicine, thanks to its rich content of a strong antioxidant agent called homoisoflavones. However, food processing methods could affect the stability of POD flavones, resulting in changes to their antioxidant activity. This study attempts to evaluate the antioxidant activity of POD flavones subject to different processing methods and determines which method could preserve the antioxidant activity of POD flavones. Therefore, flavones were extracted from POD samples, which had been treated separately with one of the four processing methods: extrusion, baking, high-pressure treatment, and yeast fermentation. After that, the antioxidant activity of the flavones was subject to in vivo tests in zebrafish embryos. The results show that yeast fermentation had the least disruption to the antioxidant activity of POD flavones, making it the most suitable food processing method for POD. By contrast, extrusion and high-pressure treatment both slightly weakened the antioxidant activity of the flavones and should be avoided in food processing. The research results provide a reference for the development and utilization of POD and the protection of its biological activity.