ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Bioinformatics
Pangenome-Driven Discovery and Comparative Genomics of Glycosyltransferase Genes in Camellia sinensis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China
- 2Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Genome Analysis Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen,, Shenzhen, China
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The unique quality of tea plants relies on the accumulation of secondary metabolites such as tea polyphenols, flavonoids, theanine, and terpenoids. The core function of UGT genes is to catalyze the glycosylation reaction that conjugates UDP-sugar donors (e.g., glucose and galactose) to various small-molecule acceptors, thereby directly affecting the structure, stability, and biological activity of these quality-related components. In this study, we systematically identified UGT gene family members across 22 high quality tea plant pan-genomes, revealing 3,210 genes that were classified into 201 orthologous groups (OGs), including 9 core, 24 soft-core, 116 dispensable, and 52 private OGs. Whole-genome duplication (WGD) was the predominant duplication type among core and soft-core genes, suggesting high evolutionary stability, whereas non-core genes were mainly shaped by transposed or proximal duplications. Ka/Ks analysis showed that 15 CsUGT genes underwent positive selection, while most remained under purifying selection. Expression comparisons indicated that structural variations (SVs) significantly influenced the expression of CsUGT22, CsUGT14, and CsUGT43, as well as their conserved domains and cis-elements. Transcriptomic data further revealed that CsUGT genes were highly expressed in buds and young leaves, and genes such as CsUGT29, CsUGT43, and CsUGT49 were markedly upregulated under drought and salt stresses. Together, this study provides This is a provisional file, not the final typeset article the first comprehensive pan-genomic analysis of the UGT gene family in tea plants, elucidating their evolutionary dynamics and adaptive functional diversification, and establishing a foundation for future molecular and breeding studies of CsUGT genes.
Keywords: Camellia sinensis, Pan-Gene Family, pan-genome, structural variation, UGT
Received: 08 Dec 2025; Accepted: 26 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Xiong, Shao, Luo, Liu, Li, Li and Wu. 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:
Ligui Xiong
Haojing Shao
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