Scenarios of Genes-to-Terpenoids Network Led to the Identification of a Novel α/β-Farnesene/β-Ocimene Synthase in Camellia sinensis

Abstract

Terpenoids play vital roles in tea aroma quality and plants defense performance determination, whereas the scenarios of genes to metabolites of terpenes pathway remain uninvestigated in tea plants. Here, we report the use of an integrated approach combining metabolites, target gene transcripts and function analyses to reveal a gene-to-terpene network in tea plants. Forty-one terpenes including 26 monoterpenes, 14 sesquiterpenes and one triterpene were detected and 82 terpenes related genes were identified from five tissues of tea plants. Pearson correlation analysis resulted in genes to metabolites network. One terpene synthases whose expression positively correlated with farnesene were selected and its function was confirmed involved in the biosynthesis of α-farnesene, β-ocimene and β-farnesene, a very important and conserved alarm pheromone in response to aphids by both in vitro enzymatic assay in planta function analysis. In summary, we provided the first reliable gene-to-terpene network for novel genes discovery.

Herbivore‐induced volatiles influence moth preference by increasing the β‐Ocimene emission of neighbouring tea plants

“…RT, retention time. ++ indicates that the number is very large because the concentration of the compound is very low in the control terpene synthase gene CsTPS2β, which is in the formation of β-Ocimene(Jin et al, 2020), was also induced by α-farnesene and DMNT (FigureS6), consistent with the increased emission of β-Ocimene, whereas the expression of CsTPS2β was not induced after exposure to linalool and (Z)-3-hexenol for 2 hr (FigureS6). Further studies showed that the transcript level of CsTPS2β could be induced quickly.…”

“…Six intact tea plants were placed in the 5-L cylinder and were equally separated into two groups by a mesh barrier to prevent the movement of E. obliqua (Jing et al, 2020). Ten E. obliqua larvae were introduced to one plant, and the cylinder was immediately covered with aluminium foil.…”

Floral Scents and Fruit Aromas: Functions, Compositions, Biosynthesis, and Regulation

“…In plastids, IPP is formed by the MEP pathway, beginning with pyruvate and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate. In cytosol and plastid, isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase is responsible for the reversible conversion of IPP to DMAPP ( Phillips et al, 2008 ; Jin et al, 2020 ).…”

Chromosome‐scale genome assembly and population genomics provide insights into the adaptation, domestication, and flavonoid metabolism of Chinese plum

“…The evolution of stress-related genes is a crucial part of the adaptation process. Notably, we observed that selection sweeps (harboring stress-related genes) overlapped with each other in the different comparisons, suggesting that a subset of genomic regions were selected during domestication and may have undergone successive selections, such as genes encoding hypersensitivity-related protein (HSR) (Lacomme and Roby, 1999), cellulose synthase (CeS) (Burn et al, 2002), plant disease resistance proteins (Martin et al, 2003), ABC transporters (ABCTs) (Martinoia et al, 2002), cytochrome P450 (CYP450) (Field and Osbourn, 2008), callose synthase (CaS) (Shi et al, 2016), CBL-interacting protein kinase (CIPK) (Singh et al, 2020), and a-farnesene synthase (AFS) (Jin et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2019) (Table S28). In addition, for the transcription factors involved in the development processes, disease resistance, and hormone-related functions (e.g., indole-3butyric acid, abscisic acid, and ethylene), the nucleotide diversities of the F and NE groups were significantly higher (Figure S18a; Table S28).…”