Tea Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Resources Innovation and Utilization, Dafeng Road 6, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510640, China.
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany & Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xingke Road 723, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510650, China.
Sci Rep. 2019 Jan 23;9(1):433. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-36591-x.
Tea (Camellia sinensis) leaves are used to make the most widely consumed beverage globally after water. Therefore, the safety and quality of raw tea leaves are important indices for making tea and related products. Habitat management has been widely used as an environmentally friendly method to control pests in agroecosystems. To investigate the impact of habitat management on tea plantation ecosystems, a habitat management approach with intercropping was established. The function of habitat management on pest control was evaluated. Furthermore, metabolome and transcriptome analysis were applied to assay changes in quality-related metabolites. The habitat management approach was found to maintain arthropod biodiversity and develop natural arthropod enemies in the tea plantation. Therefore, the yield of the habitat management-treated tea plantation was increased. Metabolome analysis showed that epigallocatechin-3-gallate, the major catechin in tea leaves, has a significantly increased content in leaves of tea plants under habitat management compared with those in the control tea plantation. The content of L-theanine, the major amino acid in tea leaves, was not significantly changed in tea plants under habitat management. Furthermore, aroma compounds were more abundant in tea leaves from the habitat management-treated tea plantation than those from the chemical pesticide-treated tea plantation. Therefore, habitat management is reported for the first time as a safe and effective approach to improving the yield and quality of tea leaves.
茶叶（Camellia sinensis）叶片被用来制作全球除水之外最受欢迎的饮料。因此，茶叶的安全和质量是制作茶叶和相关产品的重要指标。生境管理已被广泛用作控制农业生态系统中害虫的环保方法。为了研究生境管理对茶园生态系统的影响，建立了一种间作的生境管理方法。评估了生境管理在害虫控制方面的作用。此外，还应用代谢组学和转录组学分析来检测与质量相关的代谢物的变化。生境管理方法被发现可以维持茶园节肢动物生物多样性并促进自然节肢动物天敌的发展。因此，生境管理处理的茶园产量增加。代谢组学分析表明，与对照茶园相比，生境管理下的茶树叶片中叶绿素-3-没食子酸酯（茶中的主要儿茶素）的含量显著增加。茶氨酸（茶中的主要氨基酸）的含量在生境管理下的茶树中没有明显变化。此外，生境管理处理的茶园茶叶中的香气化合物比化学农药处理的茶园茶叶更丰富。因此，首次报道生境管理是一种安全有效的提高茶叶产量和质量的方法。
