Metabolism of Gallic Acid and Its Distributions in Tea (Camellia sinensis) Plants at the Tissue and Subcellular Levels

Abstract

In tea (Camellia sinensis) plants, polyphenols are the representative metabolites and play important roles during their growth. Among tea polyphenols, catechins are extensively studied, while very little attention has been paid to other polyphenols such as gallic acid (GA) that occur in tea leaves with relatively high content. In this study, GA was able to be transformed into methyl gallate (MG), suggesting that GA is not only a precursor of catechins, but also can be transformed into other metabolites in tea plants. GA content in tea leaves was higher than MG content—regardless of the cultivar, plucking month or leaf position. These two metabolites occurred with higher amounts in tender leaves. Using nonaqueous fractionation techniques, it was found that GA and MG were abundantly accumulated in peroxisome. In addition, GA and MG were found to have strong antifungal activity against two main tea plant diseases, Colletotrichum camelliae and Pseudopestalotiopsis camelliae-sinensis. The information will advance our understanding on formation and biologic functions of polyphenols in tea plants and also provide a good reference for studying in vivo occurrence of specialized metabolites in economic plants.

The effects of tea plants-soybean intercropping on the secondary metabolites of tea plants by metabolomics analysis

“…The tea is made from the tender leaves of the tea plants ( Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze), and is one of the three most popular consumed nonalcoholic beverages. Previous studies focused on the relationships of tea metabolites with tea quality and function [ 55 – 57 ]. In this study, during the profuse flowering stage of intercropping soybean, the different metabolites were involved in the different metabolic pathways and and formed two complete metabolism network diagrams as the flavonoid compound metabolism and other all secondary metabolites metabolism.…”

Transformation of Salicylic Acid and Its Distribution in Tea Plants (Camellia sinensis) at the Tissue and Subcellular Levels

“…Tea plants are a species, among others, that contain abundant secondary metabolites [ 8 , 10 , 14 ]. Many studies have used this method to study the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in tea plants [ 15 , 16 , 17 ]. In the present study, SA was found to be metabolized into SAG and MeSA in tea tissues using stable isotope tracing ( Figure 2 and Figure 3 ), consistent with SA metabolism in other species [ 18 ].…”

“…The nonaqueous fractionation (NAF) method has been widely used to investigate the distribution of metabolites in many plant species [ 21 , 22 ]. Recently, NAF has been successfully applied in determining the characteristic metabolites from tea plants [ 15 , 23 ]. In the present study, the subcellular distributions of SA and SAG was revealed by the NAF method.…”

“…The tea leaves from C. sinensis cv. Jinxuan plucked in March 2019 were fractionated using a nonaqueous procedure, in accordance with previously published studies, with a slight modification [ 15 , 22 , 30 , 31 ]. The details regarding the separation are provided in the Supplementary Materials .…”

Comparative study of some physicochemical and biological properties of effect host species variation on the relationship Saharan parasitic plant Cistanche violaceae (Desf.) Beck.

“…Gallic acid acts as an important contributor to plant taste (Zhou et al, 2020). While Liu et al (2013) isolated and identified gallic acid as an allelochemical.…”