Advances in Tea Plant Physiology, Quality Formation, and Stress Adaptation

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Physiology and Metabolism".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 664

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Integrative Science Center of Germplasm Creation in Western China (CHONGQING) Science City, College of Food Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Interests: tea plant; abiotic stress; growth and development; multiomic analysis; gene function; secondary metabolites
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Integrative Science Center of Germplasm Creation in Western China (CHONGQING) Science City, College of Food Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
Interests: tea plant; beverage plant; quality formation; stress response

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The tea plant (Camellia sinensis) is one of the world’s most significant agroeconomic crops, and its global value chain is deeply intertwined with the physiological traits, secondary metabolite profiles, and adaptive mechanisms of the plant itself. Recently, intricate genotype–environment interactions and the synthesis of quality-determining compounds (e.g., catechins or theanine) have been revealed through interdisciplinary approaches. However, climate volatility and emerging biotic/abiotic stressors—such as cold, drought, heat, pathogens, and pests—threaten yield stability and biochemical consistency, necessitating urgent advancements in stress-adaptive physiology. Understanding the mechanisms of the tea plant’s responses to biotic and abiotic stresses at both the physiological and molecular levels is vital for developing tea plants that are adaptive to changing environmental conditions. Moreover, the quality formation of tea is predominantly associated with the plant’s growth conditions and processing methods; consequently, revealing how tea quality is formed is essential for the green development of the tea industry. This Special Issue aims to attract studies on the mechanisms of tea plant growth and development, and the factors that regulate its stress responses and quality.

Dr. Chuan Yue
Dr. Hongli Cao
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • tea plant
  • tea quality
  • tea plantation
  • growth and development
  • abiotic stress
  • biotic stress
  • drought stress
  • heat stress
  • cold stress
  • salt stress
  • plant disease
  • plant nutrients
  • shading
  • phytohormone
  • gene function
  • transcriptome
  • metabolome
  • tea processing
  • tea aroma
  • dormancy
  • germplasm resources
  • metabolites

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 2814 KB  
Article
Integrating Genetic Mapping and BSR-Seq Analysis to Identify Candidate Genes Controlling Fruitfulness in Camellia sinensis
by Shizhuo Kan, Dandan Tang, Wei Chen, Yuxin Gu, Shenxin Zhao, Lu Long, Jing Zhang, Xiaoqin Tan, Liqiang Tan and Qian Tang
Plants 2025, 14(19), 2963; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14192963 - 24 Sep 2025
Viewed by 401
Abstract
As nutrient allocation trade-offs occur between reproductive and vegetative development in crops, optimizing their partitioning holds promise for improving agricultural productivity and quality. Herein, we characterize the phenotypic diversity of the fruitfulness trait and identify associated genes in tea plants (Camellia sinensis [...] Read more.
As nutrient allocation trade-offs occur between reproductive and vegetative development in crops, optimizing their partitioning holds promise for improving agricultural productivity and quality. Herein, we characterize the phenotypic diversity of the fruitfulness trait and identify associated genes in tea plants (Camellia sinensis). Over three consecutive years, we monitored the fruitfulness of an F1 hybrid population (n = 206) derived from crosses of ‘Emei Wenchun’ and ‘Chuanmu 217’. A marked variation was observed in the yield of individual plants, ranging from complete sterility (zero fruits) to exceptionally high fertility (1612 fruits). Using the high-resolution genetic linkage map and the fruitfulness data, we identified a stable major QTL designated as qFN5. To fine-map the underlying gene(s), artificial pollination experiments were conducted with extreme phenotype individuals (with the highest vs. lowest fruit numbers). Bulked segregant RNA sequencing (BSR-Seq) with ovules collected at two and seven days post-pollination (DPP) identified the genomic intervals that exhibit a high degree of overlap with qFN5. Analysis of expression dynamics combined with functional genomics data revealed a prominent candidate gene, CsETR2 (TGY048509), which encodes an ethylene receptor protein. When CsETR2 was overexpressed in Arabidopsis thaliana, the transgenic lines exhibited significantly decreased reproductive performance relative to the wild-type plants. Relative to the wild type, the transgenic lines exhibited a significant decline in several key traits: the number of effective panicles decreased by 72.5%, the seed setting rate dropped by 67.7%, and the silique length shortened by 38%. These findings demonstrate its role in regulating plant fruitfulness. Furthermore, yeast one-hybrid and dual-luciferase assays verified that CsMYB15 (TGY110225) directly binds to the CsETR2 promoter, thus repressing its transcription. In summary, our findings expand the understanding of genetic regulation underlying fruitfulness in tea plants and provide candidate target loci for breeding. Full article
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