Search Results (3)

Pruning is an important agronomic measure in tea plantation management. In this study, we analyzed the effect of pruning on gene expression in tea leaves from a transcriptomics perspective and verified the results of a transcriptomic analysis in terms of changes in physiological indicators of tea leaves. The results showed that pruning enhanced the gene expression of nine metabolic pathways in tea leaves, including fatty acid synthesis and carbohydrate metabolism, nitrogen metabolism, protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum, and plant hormone signal transduction, thereby promoting the growth of tea plants and increasing tea yield. However, pruning reduced the gene expression of nine metabolic pathways, including secondary metabolites biosynthesis, flavonoid biosynthesis, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and sesquiterpenoid and triterpenoid biosynthesis, and lowered the content of caffeine, flavonoids, and free amino acids in tea plant leaves. In conclusion, pruning could promote the growth of tea plants and increase the yield of tea, but it was not conducive to the accumulation of some quality indicators in tea leaves, especially caffeine, flavonoids, and free amino acids, which, in turn, reduced the quality of tea. This study provides an important theoretical reference for the management of agronomic measures in tea plantations. Full article

Pruning is an agronomic practice that contributes to tea tree yield during cultivation, but little is known about how pruning improves yield through shifting bacterial communities in rhizosphere soil. Therefore, Meizhan tea (Camellia sinensis) was used as the research object to analyze the effect of unpruning and pruning on the growth and rhizosphere soil physicochemical indexes of the tea tree, and sequencing technology was used to obtain the diversity of soil bacterial communities. The results showed that leaf area, hundred bud weight and yield of pruned tea trees increased by 1.32, 1.40, and 1.84 times, respectively, and pH and available N, available P, and available K contents increased by 1.10, 1.07, 1.30, and 1.07 times, respectively, compared with unpruned treatment, while total N, total P, and total K contents decreased by 1.20, 1.37, and 1.13 times, respectively. Analysis of the bacterial community structure showed that the key differential bacteria between pruned and unpruned tea trees were Candidatus Solibacter, Acidibacter, Rhizomicrobium, Bryobacter, Solanum torvum, Mizugakiibacter, Nitrospira, Sphingomonas, and Granulicella. Among them, the bacterial abundance of Candidatus Solibacter, Bryobacter, and Nitrospira showed an upward trend and the rest showed a downward trend after pruned treatment. Interaction network analysis showed that the correlation between the total key genera of microorganisms and organic matter, total N, total K, and total P content in rhizosphere soil did not reach a significant level, whereas the correlation with soil available N, available K, available P, pH, and tea tree growth indexes were all positively and significantly correlated. It can be seen that pruning changed the structure of the rhizosphere soil microbial community of tea trees, promoted soil nutrient transformation, increased the content of soil available nutrients, and promoted the growth of tea tree. Full article

In order to investigate the effect of pruning on the soil environment in which tea trees grow and the growth of tea trees, this study used Wuyi Meizhan (Camellia sinensis) as a research object and measured its growth indexes, soil physicochemical indexes, soil enzyme activity and microbial functional diversity to analyze the effects of pruning treatments on the growth of tea trees, soil enzyme activity and soil microbial functional diversity and the correlation between them. The results of the analysis of tea tree growth indexes showed that the hundred-bud weight, leaf area and yield in the pruning treatment were significantly higher than those in the unpruned treatment. The results of soil physicochemical index analysis showed that pH, available phosphorus, available potassium and organic matter were significantly higher in the pruning treatment than in the unpruned treatment (p < 0.05), while available nitrogen and total phosphorus were significantly lower than in unpruned treatment (p < 0.05). The results of soil enzyme activities showed that only polyphenol oxidase and catalase activities were significantly higher in the pruning than in the unpruned treatment, while urease, protease, acid phosphatase, asparaginase and glutaminase activities were significantly lower than in the unpruned treatment (p < 0.05). Biolog analysis showed that the utilization of microbial carbon sources, especially amino acid and amine, increased in the rhizosphere soil of the pruned tea tree, while there was a significant decrease (p < 0.05) in microbial diversity. It is evident that pruning promoted tea tree growth and some enzyme activity, while inhibiting the activity of enzymes associated with the nitrogen cycle, and the utilization of microbial carbon sources increased, but their diversity decreased. This study provides a theoretical basis for the daily management of tea plantation after pruning. Full article