LAUSR

To determine the mechanisms in tea plants responding to temperature stresses (heat and cold), we examined the global transcriptomic and metabolomic profiles of the tea plant cultivar 'Suchazao' under moderately low temperature (ML), severely low temperature (SL), moderately high temperature (MH), and severely high temperature (SH) using RNA-Seq and HPLC-MS/MS, respectively. The identified differentially expressed genes indicated that the synthesis of stress-resistance protein might be redirected to cope with the temperature stresses. We found that heat shock protein genes Hsp90 and Hsp70 played more critical roles in tea plants in adapting to thermal stress than cold, while LEA played a greater role under cold than heat stress, more types of zinc finger genes were induced under cold stress as well. In addition, energy metabolisms were inhibited by SH, SL, and ML. Furthermore, the mechanisms of anthocyanin synthesis were different under the cold and heat stresses. Indeed, the CsUGT75C1gene, encoding UDP-glucose: anthocyanin 5-O-glucosyl transferase, was up-regulated in the SL-treated leaves but down-regulated in SH. Metabolomics analysis also showed that anthocyanin monomer levels increased under SL. These results indicate that the tea plants share certain foundational mechanisms to adjust to both cold and heat stresses. They also developed some specific mechanisms for surviving the cold or heat stresses. Our study provides effective information about the different mechanisms tea plants employing in surviving cold and heat stresses, as well as the different mechanisms of anthocyanin synthesis, which could speed up the genetic breeding of heat- and cold-tolerant tea varieties.