CsPHRs-CsJAZ3 incorporates phosphate signaling and jasmonate pathway to regulate catechin biosynthesis in Camellia sinensis

Abstract

Catechins constitute abundant metabolites in tea and have potential health benefits and high economic value. Intensive study has shown that the biosynthesis of tea catechins is regulated by environmental factors and hormonal signals. However, little is known about the coordination of phosphate (Pi) signaling and the jasmonic acid (JA) pathway on biosynthesis of tea catechins. We found that Pi deficiency caused changes in the content of catechins and modulated the expression levels of genes involved in catechin biosynthesis. Herein, we identified two transcription factors of phosphate signaling in tea, named CsPHR1 and CsPHR2, respectively. Both regulated catechin biosynthesis by activating the transcription of CsANR1 and CsMYB5c. We further demonstrated CsSPX1, a Pi pathway repressor, suppressing the activation by CsPHR1/2 of CsANR1 and CsMYB5c. JA, one of the endogenous plant hormones, has been reported to be involved in the regulation of secondary metabolism. Our work demonstrated that the JA signaling repressor CsJAZ3 negatively regulated catechin biosynthesis via physical interaction with CsPHR1 and CsPHR2. Thus, the CsPHRs-CsJAZ3 module bridges the nutrition and hormone signals, contributing to targeted cultivation of high-quality tea cultivars with high fertilizer efficiency.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. LQ23C020003 and LR22C020003, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 32272553, the Major Science and Technology Special Project of Variety Breeding of Zhejiang Province (2021C02067-7 and 2021C02064-6), and the State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products (2021DG700024-KF202102).

Author contributions

GJ.H. and LY.L. designed the project, analyzed the data, interpreted the results, and wrote the manuscript. LY.L., XY.Z., D.L., H.S., YQ.H., ZL.X., Y.Z., YY.H., QS.L., and P.X. performed the experiments. The article's submission was reviewed and approved by all authors.

Data availability

All the data supporting the findings of this study are available in the paper and supplementary data.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Supplementary data

Supplementary data are available at Horticulture Research online.

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