Understanding response of tea plants to heat stress and the mechanisms of adaptation

Abstract

Tea plants are mainly distributed in the tropic and subtropic regions. Tea leaves provide the resources of healthy nonalcoholic beverages and have great economical value. Global warming appears to be a trend of climate change in the future. Heat stress is one of the disastrous factors that considerably restrict the growth and development of tea plant and affect quality and yield of tea products. A series of complex physiological and biochemical adaptations have evolved to adapt and cope with the diverse environmental stresses. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the mechanism in response to high temperature might be a great strategy for improving the heat resistance of tea plants. Previous studies have reported functional and regulatory genes involved in heat tolerance of tea plants. Transgenic verification has been implemented mainly in heat shock protein (HSP). The integration of new technologies, such as transcriptome analysis, small RNAs, proteomics, metabolomics, etc., are still relatively poor in tea plants, which need more attention for studying heat resistance in tea plants.