A Comparative Metabolomic Analysis Reveals Difference Manufacture Suitability in “Yinghong 9” and “Huangyu” Teas (Camellia sinensis)

Abstract

“Yinghong 9” is a widely cultivated large-leaf variety in South China, and the black tea made from it has a high aroma and strong sweet flavor. “Huangyu” is a light-sensitive tea variety with yellow leaves. It was cultivated from the bud-mutation of “Yinghong 9” and has a very low level of chlorophyll during young shoot development. Due to chlorophyll being involved in carbon fixation and assimilation, the changes in photosynthesis might potentially affect the accumulation of flavor metabolites, as well as the quality of “Huangyu” tea. Although “Huangyu” has a golden yellow color and high amino acid content, the mechanism underlying the formation of leaf color and drinking value remains unclear. The widely targeted metabolomics and GC-MS analysis were performed to reveal the differences of key metabolites in fresh and fermented leaves between “Yinghong 9” and “Huangyu.” The results showed that tea polyphenols, total chlorophyll, and carotenoids were more abundant in “Yinghong 9.” Targeted metabolomics analysis indicated that kaempferol-3-glycoside was more abundant in “Yinghong 9,” while “Huangyu” had a higher ratio of kaempferol-3-glucoside to kaempferol-3-galactoside. Compared with “Yinghong 9” fresh leaves, the contents of zeaxanthin and zeaxanthin palmitate were significantly higher in “Huangyu.” The contents of α-farnesene, β-cyclocitral, nerolidol, and trans-geranylacetone, which were from carotenoid degradation and involved in flowery-fruity-like flavor in “Huangyu” fermented leaves, were higher than those of “Yinghong 9.” Our results indicated that “Huangyu” was suitable for manufacturing non-fermented tea because of its yellow leaf and flowery-fruity-like compounds from carotenoid degradation.

Development of cassava common mosaic virus-based vector for protein expression and gene editing in cassava

“…Tissue samples were prepared and carotenoid metabolites were extracted following a previously described method [ 66 ]. Carotenoid contents were quantified using the AB Sciex QTRAP 6500 LC-MS/MS platform from MetWare ( http://www.metware.cn/ ).…”

Metabolic and Transcriptomic Profiling Reveals Etiolated Mechanism in Huangyu Tea (Camellia sinensis) Leaves

“…The flow rate of the mobile phase was 0.35 mL/min; the injection volume was 4 μL. Metabolic compounds identification and quantification were based on the primary and secondary spectral data annotated on MVDB database V2.0 (Metware Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Wuhan, China) and public databases such as MassBank, HMDB, KNAPSAcK, and METLIN [ 15 ]. The orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) was carried out using the R package with the identified metabolites [ 83 ].…”

“…Researchers accidentally discovered its etiolated bud-mutant, namely ‘Huangyu’. Previous studies have analyzed the differences between the etiolated mutant and ‘Yinghong 9’ in leaf colors, theanine formation, proteomics, and so on, and explained the possible causes of leaf-color variation and the accumulating mechanism of amino acids [ 1 , 15 ]. However, the molecular mechanism of the leaf-color mutation remains unclear.…”

The molecular mechanisms of quality difference for Alpine Qingming green tea and Guyu green tea by integrating multi-omics

“…Photosynthesis, photosynthesis-antenna proteins, and carotenoid biosynthesis are further known to enhance photosynthesis activity in young leaves. Some researchers (37) have suggested that the gradual increase of chlorophyll is involved in carbon fixation, and the photosynthesis would differ from the accumulation of flavor metabolites and the tea quality. Meanwhile, enhanced photosynthesis is also known to facilitate the accumulation of free amino acids and aroma components in tea leaves (6).…”