College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China.
Department of Plants Science, University of Manitoba, 66 Dafoe Road, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada.
BMC Plant Biol. 2021 Oct 22;21(1):482. doi: 10.1186/s12870-021-03258-1.
Intercropping, especially with legumes, as a productive and sustainable system, can promote plants growth and improves the soil quality than the sole crop, is an essential cultivation pattern in modern agricultural systems. However, the metabolic changes of secondary metabolites and the growth in tea plants during the processing of intercropping with soybean have not been fully analyzed.
The secondary metabolomic of the tea plants were significant influence with intercropping soybean during the different growth stages. Especially in the profuse flowering stage of intercropping soybean, the biosynthesis of amino acids was significantly impacted, and the flavonoid biosynthesis, the flavone and flavonol biosynthesis also were changed. And the expression of metabolites associated with amino acids metabolism, particularly glutamate, glutamine, lysine and arginine were up-regulated, while the expression of the sucrose and D-Glucose-6P were down-regulated. Furthermore, the chlorophyll photosynthetic parameters and the photosynthetic activity of tea plants were higher in the tea plants-soybean intercropping system.
These results strengthen our understanding of the metabolic mechanisms in tea plant's secondary metabolites under the tea plants-soybean intercropping system and demonstrate that the intercropping system of leguminous crops is greatly potential to improve tea quality. These may provide the basis for reducing the application of nitrogen fertilizer and improve the ecosystem in tea plantations.
间作，特别是与豆科植物间作，作为一种高产和可持续的系统，可以促进植物生长，改善土壤质量，优于单一作物，是现代农业系统中必不可少的栽培模式。然而，茶树在与大豆间作过程中的次生代谢物变化和生长情况尚未得到充分分析。
间作大豆对茶树的次生代谢组学在不同的生长阶段有显著影响。特别是在大豆间作的盛花期，茶树的氨基酸生物合成受到显著影响，类黄酮生物合成、黄酮和黄酮醇生物合成也发生了变化。与氨基酸代谢相关的代谢物的表达，特别是谷氨酸、谷氨酰胺、赖氨酸和精氨酸上调，而蔗糖和 D-葡萄糖-6P 的表达下调。此外，茶树-大豆间作系统中茶树的叶绿素光合参数和光合活性较高。
这些结果加强了我们对茶树次生代谢物在茶树-大豆间作系统下代谢机制的理解，并表明豆科作物间作系统极大地有潜力提高茶叶品质。这可能为减少茶园氮肥的应用和改善生态系统提供依据。
