Differential Accumulation of Aroma Compounds in Normal Green and Albino-Induced Yellow Tea (Camellia sinensis) Leaves
Fang Dong,
Lanting Zeng,
Zhenming Yu,
Jianlong Li,
Jinchi Tang,
Xinguo Su,
Ziyin Yang
Affiliations
Fang Dong
Guangdong Food and Drug Vocational College, Longdongbei Road 321, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510520, China
Lanting Zeng
Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xingke Road 723, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510650, China
Zhenming Yu
Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xingke Road 723, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510650, China
Jianlong Li
Tea Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Resources Innovation and Utilization, Dafeng Road 6, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510640, China
Jinchi Tang
Tea Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Resources Innovation and Utilization, Dafeng Road 6, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510640, China
Xinguo Su
Guangdong Food and Drug Vocational College, Longdongbei Road 321, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510520, China
Ziyin Yang
Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xingke Road 723, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510650, China
Tea (Camellia sinensis) cultivars with green leaves are the most widely used for making tea. Recently, tea mutants with white or yellow young shoots have attracted increasing interest as raw materials for making “high-quality” tea products. Albino teas are generallycharacterized as having metabolites of relatively high amino acid content and lower catechin content. However, little is known about aroma compounds in albino tea leaves. Herein, we compared original normal leaves (green) and light-sensitive albino leaves (yellow) of cv. Yinghong No. 9. GC-MS was employed to analyze endogenous tea aroma compounds and related precursors. Quantitative real time PCR was used to measure expression levels of genes involved in biosyntheses of tea aromas.The total contents of most endogenous free tea aromas, including aroma fatty acid derivatives, aroma terpenes, and aroma phenylpropanoids/benzenoids, and their glycosidically bound aroma compounds, were lower in yellow leaves than in green leaves. The content of the key precursor geranyl diphosphate (GDP) and expression levels of key synthetic genes involved in the formation of linalool, a major aroma compound in cv. Yinghong No. 9, were investigated. Linalool content was lower in albino-induced yellow leaves, which was due to the lower GDP content compared with normal green leaves.
