Transcriptome-Wide Analysis of Nitrogen-Regulated Genes in Tea Plant (Camellia sinensis L. O. Kuntze) and Characterization of Amino Acid Transporter CsCAT9.1

Abstract

The vigor of tea plants (Camellia sinensis) and tea quality are strongly influenced by the abundance and forms of nitrogen, principally NO3−, NH4+, and amino acids. Mechanisms to access different nitrogen sources and the regulatory cues remain largely elusive in tea plants. A transcriptome analysis was performed to categorize differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in roots and young leaves during the early response to four nitrogen treatments. Relative to the continuously nitrogen-replete control, the three nitrogen-deprived and resupplied treatments shared 237 DEGs in the shoots and 21 DEGs in the root. Gene-ontology characterization revealed that transcripts encoding genes predicted to participate in nitrogen uptake, assimilation, and translocation were among the most differentially expressed after exposure to the different nitrogen regimes. Because of its high transcript level regardless of nitrogen condition, a putative amino acid transporter, TEA020444/CsCAT9.1, was further characterized in Arabidopsis and found to mediate the acquisition of a broad spectrum of amino acids, suggesting a role in amino acid uptake, transport, and deposition in sinks as an internal reservoir. Our results enhance our understanding of nitrogen-regulated transcript level patterns in tea plants and pinpoint candidate genes that function in nitrogen transport and metabolism, allowing tea plants to adjust to variable nitrogen environments.

Effects of nitrogen levels on gene expression and amino acid metabolism in Welsh onion

“…The relationship between specific genes and amino acids has been reported in other crops [19]. The abundance of nitrogen can strongly affect the biosynthesis of amino acids of tea plants, thus influence tea quality [20]. However, little information is available regarding the metabolism of nitrogen and amino acids and the gene regulation network in A. fistulosum.…”

Genome-wide analysis of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in tea plants (Camellia sinensis) lateral roots in response to nitrogen application

“…At the same time, barley is becoming a model crop for similar research because of its adaptability to barren land (Chen et al, 2018). Due to the particularity system of tea plants, nitrogen use efficiency is critical in recent research (Zhang et al, 2020). It includes nitrogen absorption efficiency, utilization efficiency and transport efficiency.…”

Ectopic Overexpression of Histone H3K4 Methyltransferase CsSDG36 from Tea Plant Decreases Hyperosmotic Stress Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana

“…Based on the CsSDG36 gene sequence obtained from the CsSDG family in our previous study [ 37 ], the complete CDS of CsSDG36 was amplified with primers, listed in Table 1 , followed by cloning the sequence into the pCAMBIA1300s vector and transforming the recombinant vector by agrobacterium-mediated inflorescence infection [ 50 ]. Positive screening was performed by hygromycin and PCR.…”