ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Crop and Product Physiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1626915
Transcriptome sequencing revealed the regulation of stem internode length associated with mechanical harvesting in three tea varieties
Provisionally accepted
- Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Guiyang, China
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Internode length of tea plant is one of the key traits affecting the mechanical harvesting effect, but there are relatively few reports on their molecular regulatory. In this study, we measured the internode lengths of the three varieties and found that their internode lengths were 'Feiyun' > 'Qiancha 1' > 'Longjing 43'. Then, transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) was performed on it in order to explain its molecular mechanism. 10,518 differentially expressed genes were identified through transcriptome sequencing and analysis. GO and KEGG enrichment showed that these differentially expressed genes were mainly enriched in plant hormone signal transduction and DNA-binding transcription factor activity pathways. WGCNA analysis identified two modules significantly correlated with internode length. Combining enrichment analysis with WGCNA results, 28 candidate genes associated with internode length were identified. In addition, it was found that the expression levels of DELLA protein and GA3ox were highly expressed in 'Longjing 43', while GA2ox, WRKY, and ERF were highly expressed in 'Feiyun', showing significant positive and negative correlations with internode length, respectively. Our results provide candidate genes for studying the molecular mechanism of stem elongation, and provide a theoretical basis for selection machine harvested tea varieties and improvement of mechanical harvesting efficiency.
Keywords: stem internode length, Mechanical harvesting, Tea plant, RNA-Seq, WGCNA
Received: 16 May 2025; Accepted: 16 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mi, Qiao, Yang, Chen, Liang and Guo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yan Guo, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Guiyang, China
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