Abstract
BackgroundTea is the most popular non-alcoholic health beverage in the world. The tea plant (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze) needs to undergo a cold acclimation process to enhance its freezing tolerance in winter. Changes that occur at the molecular level in response to low temperatures are poorly understood in tea plants. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms of cold acclimation, we employed RNA-Seq and digital gene expression (DGE) technologies to the study of genome-wide expression profiles during cold acclimation in tea plants.ResultsUsing the Illumina sequencing platform, we obtained approximately 57.35 million RNA-Seq reads. These reads were assembled into 216,831 transcripts, with an average length of 356 bp and an N50 of 529 bp. In total, 1,770 differentially expressed transcripts were identified, of which 1,168 were up-regulated and 602 down-regulated. These include a group of cold sensor or signal transduction genes, cold-responsive transcription factor genes, plasma membrane stabilization related genes, osmosensing-responsive genes, and detoxification enzyme genes. DGE and quantitative RT-PCR analysis further confirmed the results from RNA-Seq analysis. Pathway analysis indicated that the “carbohydrate metabolism pathway” and the “calcium signaling pathway” might play a vital role in tea plants’ responses to cold stress.ConclusionsOur study presents a global survey of transcriptome profiles of tea plants in response to low, non-freezing temperatures and yields insights into the molecular mechanisms of tea plants during the cold acclimation process. It could also serve as a valuable resource for relevant research on cold-tolerance and help to explore the cold-related genes in improving the understanding of low-temperature tolerance and plant-environment interactions.
Highlights
Tea is the most popular non-alcoholic health beverage in the world
This study demonstrates the first attempt to use a combination of RNA-Seq and digital gene expression (DGE) to study the transcriptome profiles in tea plants and thereby gain a deeper insight into the molecular mechanism of cold acclimation (CA)
Cold tolerance changes in tea plant during the CA process Cold tolerance in tea plants varies under different temperatures and can be monitored by the relative electrical conductivity using an electrolyte leakage assay
Summary
Tea is the most popular non-alcoholic health beverage in the world. The tea plant (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Changes that occur at the molecular level in response to low temperatures are poorly understood in tea plants. Some plants can enhance their freezing tolerance after exposure to low but non-freezing temperatures for a period of time, a process known as cold acclimation (CA) [1]. Tea is the most popular non-alcoholic health beverage in the world, and the tea plant (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Due to the local climate changes, tea plants have to cope with low temperatures during the wintertime. Like other perennial evergreen woody crops, during the CA process, the cold tolerance of tea plants enhances with the decrease in temperature and reduces with the increase in temperature. When tea plants undergo the CA process, the thickness of palisade tissue is increased and the stability of plasma membrane is enhanced. Using an ‘omics’ research strategy to understand the mechanism of CA in tea plants is the key to improving tea productivity and geographical distribution
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