Abstract
‘Anji Baicha’ is an albino tea cultivar with white shoots at low air temperature and green shoots at high air temperature in early spring. The metabolite contents in the shoots dynamically vary with the color changes and with shoot development. To investigate the metabolomic variation during the albescent and re-greening stages, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry combined with multivariate analysis were applied to analyze the metabolite profiles in the different color stages during the development of 'Anji Baicha' leaves. The metabolite profiles of three albescent stages, including the yellow-green stage, the early albescent stage, and the late albescent stage, as well as the re-greening stage were distinguished using principal component analysis, revealing that the distinct developmental stages were likely responsible for the observed metabolic differences. Furthermore, a group classification and pairwise discrimination was revealed among the three albescent stages and re-greening stage by partial least squares discriminant analysis. A total of 65 differential metabolites were identified with a variable influence on projection greater than 1. The main differential metabolic pathways of the albescent stages compared with the re-greening stage included carbon fixation in photosynthetic organisms and the phenylpropanoid and flavonoid biosynthesis pathways. Compared with the re-greening stage, the carbohydrate and amino acid metabolic pathways were disturbed during the albescent stages. During the albescent stages, the sugar (fructofuranose), sugar derivative (glucose-1-phosphate) and epicatechin concentrations decreased, whereas the amino acid (mainly glycine, serine, tryptophan, citrulline, glutamine, proline, and valine) concentrations increased. These results reveal the changes in metabolic profiling that occur during the color changes associated with the development of the albino tea plant leaves.
Highlights
Albescence, the loss of chlorophyll from plants, can be caused by a number of genetic and environmental factors
To assess the influence of albescence on global gene expression levels in the tea plant, Ma et al used a cDNA microarray to analyze gene expression and found that genes involved in energy metabolism, carbon fixation, and secondary metabolism were significantly changed during five albescent stages, including the yellow-green stage, the slightly white stage, the pale-white stage, the slightly green stage and the light-green stage [6]
Du et al found that the albino phenotype is strongly related to tea plant chlorophyll biosynthesis, which is inhibited at low air temperatures and recovers as the air temperature increases [1]
Summary
Albescence, the loss of chlorophyll from plants, can be caused by a number of genetic and environmental factors. Compared with the green tea cultivar ‘Longjing 43’, higher theanine and free amino acid and lower carotenoid, catechin and anthocyanin concentrations were found in another chlorina tea plant cultivar, ‘Zhonghuang 2’ These differences in metabolite concentrations mainly resulted from differential gene expression in ‘Zhonghuang 2’ compared with ‘Longjing 43’ [8]. Protein and metabolite results [2,3,4,5,6,7], we predicted that the metabolic pathways of ‘Anji Baicha’ during albescent stages were significantly different than those during the normal green stage Previous research in these albino cultivars revealed the chemical content and gene expression changes in tea plants from the yellow-green stage to the white stage until the regreening stage. Changes in the comprehensive metabolic profiles of albino tea cultivars must be assessed to further improve tea cultivars
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
