Lipidomics, transcription analysis, and hormone profiling unveil the role of CsLOX6 in MeJA biosynthesis during black tea processing

Abstract

Jasmonates, such as jasmonic acid (JA) and methyl jasmonate (MeJA), are crucial aspect of black tea quality. However, lipids species, hormones, and genes regulated mechanism in the jasmonate biosynthesis during black tea processing are lacking. In this study, we employed lipidomics, hormone metabolism analysis, and transcriptome profiling of genes associated with the MeJA biosynthesis pathway to investigate these factors. The contents of lipids GLs, PLs, and TAG are decreased, accompanied by the main lipids species reduced during black tea processing. Galactolipids, primarily 34:3/36:6/36:3 DGDG and 36:6/36:5/36:4 MGDG, are transformed into massive MeJA and JA in black tea processing, accompanied by the decreased SA, MeSA, IAA, and BA and increased zeatin. Additionally, the transcriptional activity of the primary genes in MeJA biosynthesis pathway exhibited downregulated trends except for AOS and OPR and non-primary genes tend to be a little high or have fluctuation of expression. Coordinated expression of main CsHPL (TEA008699), CsAOS (TEA001041), and Cs JMT (TEA015791) control the flow of lipids degradation and MeJA production. A strong infected reduction of a key lipoxygenase gene, CsLOX6 (TEA009423), in tea buds significantly reduced the level of jasmonates and expression of downstream genes, accompanied by SA, MeSA level rising, and ABA declining. We have identified a key CsLOX6, as well as established galactolipids, mainly 34:3/36:6/36:3 DGDG and 36:6/36:5/36:4 MGDG, sources for MeJA biosynthesis regulated by dynamics hormone and controlled by coordinated expressed CsHPL (TEA008699), CsAOS (TEA001041), and CsJMT (TEA015791). Our findings provide a theoretical basis for breeding high-quality black tea and offer valuable insights for improving processing methods.

Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Ruth Welti and Ms Mary Roth at Kansas State University for assistance on lipid metabolite profiling and data analysis, Mrs Ying Huang at Anhui Agricultural University for her assistance with qRT-PCR analyses and sample collection, and Xiongyuan Si at Anhui Agricultural University for technical support in volatile flavor analysis. The authors also thank Prof. Zhao’s lab members for assistance with experiments and data analyses and Vagner’s grammar modification. This work was supported by High Level Research Fund for Qualified People of Henan University of Technology (2021BS017), the Key Research and Development (R&D) Program of Anhui Province (18030701155), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFD1000601).

Author contributions

G.Z. conceived the project and supervised this study. G.Z., J.W., L.L., and D.C. performed the experiments. G.Z., J.W., L.L., collected samples and performed the lipidomics analysis. D.C. analysed the gene transciptional expression. G.Z. wrote and edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Data availability

All relevant data in this study are provided in the article and its supplementary data files.

Conf lict of interest statement‌

All authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Supplementary data

Supplementary data is available at Horticulture Research online.

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