Multiomics analysis of the mechanisms behind flavonoid differences between purple and green tender shoots of Camellia sinensis var. assamica

Abstract

Flavonoids are rich in tea plants (Camellia sinensis), and responsible for the flavor and healthful benefits of tea beverage. The anthocyanin levels in the purple tender shoots are higher than in the general green leaves of tea plant, which provide special materials to search metabolic mechanisms of flavonoid enrichment in plant. In this work, flavonoid differences between purple and green shoots from tea cultivars ‘Zijuan’ (ZJ) and ‘Yunkang10’ (YK-10) were investigated through metabolomic analysis, and mechanisms for their difference were surveyed by comparative transcriptomic and proteomic analysis. Levels of 34 flavonoids were different between ZJ and YK-10 shoots. Among them, eight and six were marker metabolites in ZJ and YK-10, respectively. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs), proteins (DEPs) and different-level metabolites (DLMs) between ZJ and YK-10 were researched, respectively; and interactions including DEG-DLM, DEP-DLM, DEG-DEP and DEG-DEP-DLM were analyzed; the contents of 18 characteristic flavonoids in tea leaves and expressions of 34 flavonoid metabolic genes were measured to verify the omics results. Integrated above analyses, a proposed model of flavonoids biosynthesis in tea shoots were established. The differential expression of the leucoanthocyanidin reductase (LAR), anthocyanidin synthase (ANS), anthocyanidin reductase (ANR), UDPG-flavonoid glucosyltransferase (UGT) 75L12 and 94P1 at gene level, and the ANS, ANR and UGT78A15 at protein level, were closely associated with differences in flavonoids between ZJ and YK-10 shoot. Together, this study provides new information on the flavonoid accumulation mechanism in tea plant.

Widely Targeted Metabolomics Analysis Reveals the Effect of Cultivation Altitude on Tea Metabolites

“…In the present study, flavonoids accounted for the majority of the total differential metabolites between MK and FY. This is similar to the previous findings in that cultivar is an important factor affecting the differences in flavonoid content [44,45]. Furthermore, we found that most of the anthocyanin-like differential metabolites detected had higher accumulation in MK.…”

Multi-Omics Research Accelerates the Clarification of the Formation Mechanism and the Influence of Leaf Color Variation in Tea (Camellia sinensis) Plants

“…Performing the overexpression of MYB90 from Zikui in the calluses of tobacco can strongly induce anthocyanin syn- Besides the genetic factors, environmental variations also influence the anthocyanin composition [93]. For instance, in the most studied purple variety, Zijuan, delphinidin-3-O-galactoside is detected at high levels in five different geographical environments but not in 'Pu'er' [77,82,[87][88][89]91]. The components of anthocyanin identified also depend on the detection strategy.…”

Genome-wide identification of UDP-glycosyltransferases in the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) and their biochemical and physiological functions

“…On the other hand, CsUGT94P1 preferentially xylosylated the sugar moiety of geranyl glucoside at the 6’-hydroxy group, but was also able to use UDP-glucose as a donor substrate, albeit with one-third reduction in activity, and can therefore also be classed as a GGT. CsUGT94P1 gene expression correlated with flavonoid content in shoots of two metabolically distinct tea cultivars ( Liu et al., 2023 ).…”

“…In both transgenic plant species, CsUGT78A14 promoted flavonol 3- O -glucoside production, whereas flavonol 3- O -galactosides accumulated in CsUGT78A15 transgenic plants. In a multiomics analysis, CsUGT78A15 protein content correlated with flavonoid content in the shoots of two metabolically distinct tea genotypes ( Liu et al., 2023 ).…”

“…further activation of the catalytically active His is not necessary ( Huang et al., 2018 ). Multiomics analysis of shoots showed that CsUGT75L12 gene expression correlated with flavonoid content in two metabolically distinct tea cultivars ( Liu et al., 2023 ).…”