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. 2019 Jan 24;24(3):415.
doi: 10.3390/molecules24030415.

Characteristics of Free Amino Acids (the Quality Chemical Components of Tea) under Spatial Heterogeneity of Different Nitrogen Forms in Tea (Camellia sinensis) Plants

Li Ruan  1   2 , Kang Wei  3 , Liyuan Wang  4 , Hao Cheng  5 , Liyun Wu  6 , Hailin Li  7
Affiliations

Characteristics of Free Amino Acids (the Quality Chemical Components of Tea) under Spatial Heterogeneity of Different Nitrogen Forms in Tea (Camellia sinensis) Plants

Li Ruan et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) forms are closely related to tea quality, however, little is known about the characteristics of quality chemical components in tea under the spatial heterogeneity of different N forms. In this study, a split-root system, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and root analysis system (WinRHIZO) were used to investigate free amino acids (FAAs) and root length of tea plants under the spatial heterogeneity of different N forms. Uniform. (U.) ammonium (NH₄⁺) (both compartments had NH₄⁺), U. nitrate (NO₃-) (both compartments had NO₃-), Split. (Sp.) NH₄⁺ (one of the compartments had NH₄⁺), and Sp. NO₃- (the other compartment had NO₃-) were performed. The ranking of total FAAs in leaves were as follows: U. NH₄⁺ > Sp. NH₄⁺/Sp. NO₃- > U. NO₃-. The FAA characteristics of Sp. NH₄⁺/Sp. NO₃- were more similar to those of U. NO₃-. The contents of the important FAAs (aspartic acid, glutamic acid, and theanine) that determine the quality of tea, increased significantly in U. NH₄⁺. The total root length in U. NH₄⁺ was higher than that in the other treatments. More serious root browning was found in U. NO₃-. In conclusion, NH₄⁺ improved the accumulations of FAAs in tea leaves, which might be attributed to the root development.

Keywords: free amino acids; heterogeneity; nitrogen forms; root development; tea quality.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Nitrogen (N) content and diversity of free amino acids (FAAs) in leaves under the split-root system. (a) Diagram showing the split-root system used to simulate the spatial heterogeneity of different N forms. Two separated physical spaces where different N forms could be applied, were created in this split-root system: U. ammonium (NH4+) (both compartments had NH4+), U. nitrate (NO3−) (both compartments had NO3−), Sp. NH4+ (one of the compartments had NH4+), and Sp. NO3− (the other compartment had NO3−); (b) leaf N content; (c) diversity of FAAs in the leaves. The mean ± SE (n = 3) are shown in the data. The different letters show that means are significantly different at p < 0.05. The different conditions to compare the analytical results obtained are shown in the Materials and Methods section.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Free amino acid (FAA) content in the leaves. (a) The contents of all FAAs in the leaves; (b) the contents of total and major FAAs in the leaves. The mean ± SE (n = 3) are shown in the data. The different letters show that means are significantly different at p < 0.05. The different conditions to compare the analytical results obtained are shown in the Materials and Methods section.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Root developments under the spatial heterogeneity of different N forms. (a) The root phenotypes of different treatments and (b) the total root length of different treatments. The mean ± SE (n = 3) are shown in the data. The different letters show that means are significantly different at p < 0.05. The different conditions to compare the analytical results obtained are shown in the Materials and Methods section.
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