SignificanceA high-quality genome assembly of Camellia sinensis var. sinensis facilitates genomic, transcriptomic, and metabolomic analyses of the quality traits that make tea one of the world’s most-consumed beverages. The specific gene family members critical for biosynthesis of key tea metabolites, monomeric galloylated catechins and theanine, are indicated and found to have evolved specifically for these functions in the tea plant lineage. Two whole-genome duplications, critical to gene family evolution for these two metabolites, are identified and dated, but are shown to account for less amplification than subsequent paralogous duplications. These studies lay the foundation for future research to understand and utilize the genes that determine tea quality and its diversity within tea germplasm.

Highlights d Parabacteroides distasonis alleviates obesity and obesityrelated dysfunctions in mice. d P. distasonis generates succinate and secondary bile acids in the gut. d P. distasonis activates intestinal gluconeogenesis (IGN) and FXR pathways in the gut. d Succinate is a ligand of fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, the rate-limiting enzyme in IGN.

Liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are fatal sequelaes of chronic hepatitis B in China. The sera from HCC and cirrhosis were profiled by rapid resolution liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-TOF) mass spectrometry. Reversed-phased (RP) liquid chromatography and hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) were used for the data acquisition. The normalized and combined data were handled by chemometric analysis, and the combination proved to be effective and reliable for the orthogonal projection to latent structures (OPLS) analysis. Metabonomic profiles and the potential biomarkers were found based on the OPLS models. Shared and unique structure (SUS) plots were used for the evaluation of the potential biomarkers. Glycocholic acid, glycochenodeoxycholic acid, taurocholic acid and taurochenodesoxycholic acid were found to be potential biomarkers related to liver cirrhosis, while dihydrosphingosine and phytosphingosine were potential diagnostic biomarkers of HCC. The other identified metabolites were considered as common potential biomarkers for the two liver diseases. Correlation networks based on these metabolites were also built for the systemic understanding of these diseases and the possible biological implications are discussed. This metabonomic approach may provide insight into discovery and identification of new diagnostic biomarkers for liver cancer and associated diseases.