Plant-Climate Interaction Effects: Changes in the Relative Distribution and Concentration of the Volatile Tea Leaf Metabolome in 2014–2016

Abstract

Climatic conditions affect the chemical composition of edible crops, which can impact flavor, nutrition and overall consumer preferences. To understand these effects, we sampled tea (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze) grown in different environmental conditions. Using a target/nontarget data analysis approach, we detected 564 metabolites from tea grown at two elevations in spring and summer over 3 years in two major tea-producing areas of China. Principal component analysis and partial least squares-discriminant analysis show seasonal, elevational, and yearly differences in tea from Yunnan and Fujian provinces. Independent of location, higher concentrations of compounds with aromas characteristic of farmers’ perceptions of high-quality tea were found in spring and high elevation teas. Yunnan teas were distinct from Fujian teas, but the effects of elevation and season were different for the two locations. Elevation was the largest source of metabolite variation in Yunnan yet had no effect in Fujian. In contrast seasonal differences were strong in both locations. Importantly, the year-to-year variation in chemistry at both locations emphasizes the importance of doing multi-year studies, and further highlights the challenge farmers face when trying to produce teas with specific flavor/health (metabolite) profiles.

Climate Change and Coffee Quality: Systematic Review on the Effects of Environmental and Management Variation on Secondary Metabolites and Sensory Attributes of Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora

“…The two consistent trends identified in this systematic review including increased altitude being associated with improved sensory attributes and increased light exposure associated with decreased sensory attributes (Avelino et al, 2005;Joët et al, 2010;Cruz Bolivar et al, 2017;Tolessa et al, 2017) is aligned to research on other crops including tea (Ahmed et al, 2013(Ahmed et al, , 2019 and cacao (Carrillo et al, 2014). Examining crops cultivated at different altitudes is often used as a proxy for temperature (Kfoury et al, 2019). Higher altitudes are associated with cooler temperatures that result in slower ripening, prolonged fruit-fill, and higher accumulation of flavor (taste and aroma) precursors (Bertrand et al, 2006(Bertrand et al, , 2012Vaast et al, 2006).…”

Comprehensive two‐dimensional gas chromatography as a boosting technology in food‐omic investigations

“…The study, complementing previous work on unprocessed tea focused on volatiles, on specialized metabolites and metals [88,91,92], extended the existing knowledge on the complex interrelation between tea plants and climate. The authors stated: ".…”

“…When the interest focuses on extreme climate events (drought and temperature effects) and their impact on high-economic value crops, untargeted food metabolomics by GC × GC-TOF MS has demonstrated to be a valid complement to other techniques targeted to nonvolatile specialized plant metabolites [91,92]. Stilo et al investigated tea (Camellia sinensis L. Kuntze) primary metabolome [89] to better understand plant metabolism adaptation to drought and heavy rains or to daily temperature variations due to elevation.…”

Differing non‐linear, lagged effects of temperature and precipitation on an insect herbivore and its host plant

“…Arthropod predators or parasitoids are also sensitive to temperature and warmer temperatures may increase their population and/or improve their prey searching efficiency. In addition, predators of leafhoppers rely on tea plant volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to find their prey (Gao et al, 2004) and tea VOC profiles may be altered by weather (Kowalsick et al, 2014;Kfoury et al, 2018Kfoury et al, , 2019Scott et al, 2019). Weather may also directly impact the quality of tea leaves as a food source for leafhoppers, which could have a delayed effect on their densities.…”