The tea (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze) plant is an important economic crop that has been planted in China for nearly 2000 years . We have reported that the chitosan oligosaccharides(COS) can elicit tea plant adapting response to cold stress .Now We presented here the effect of COS on tea plant growth and yield by physiological and transcriptomic checking.
We conducted the field test at three tea gardens in Meitan, Ziyun and Pingtang in Guizhou Province, China.The results showed that COS treatment can enhance the antioxidant activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) and increase the content of chlorophyll and soluble sugar in tea plants. The field trail results show that COS treatment can increase tea buds’ density by 13.81–23.16%, the weight of 100 buds by 15.94–18.15%, and the yield by 14.22–21.08%.Transcriptome sequencing and DEGs analysis showed that various gene and pathway primarily involved in COS treatment and plant hormone signal transduction and alpha-Linolenic acid metabolism pathway might play a dominant role in promoting the growth and development of tea plants.
Figure 1. Tea plants treated by 5% COS bearing more new shoots (left: CK; right: COS-treated).
Figure 2. Effect of application of COS on tea yields. I, II and III represent three teagardens in Meitan County, Ziyun County, and Pingtang county, respectively.
Reference:Physiological, Transcriptomic Investigation on the Tea Plant Growth and Yield Motivation by Chitosan Oligosaccharides