Abstract
The tea plant is an economically important perennial crop whose yield and quality are severely constrained by cold stress. With the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, elucidating the molecular basis of cold tolerance is therefore essential for safeguarding tea production and its associated economic value. Catechins contribute to cold tolerance in tea plants, but the underlying regulatory mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we integrated transcriptomic, metabolomic, and physiological approaches to identify the CsMYB44-CsICE1 module, which regulates cold-induced flavonoid and catechin biosynthesis to enhance cold tolerance. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) revealed that CsICE1 was strongly positively correlated with catechin accumulation and cold tolerance, whereas CsMYB44 was negatively correlated with these traits. Overexpression of CsICE1 in Arabidopsis improved cold tolerance by elevating flavonoid levels and upregulating antioxidant and cold-responsive genes, including AtSOD, AtPOD, and AtCBF1. Conversely, overexpression or silencing CsICE1 in tea plants significantly affected cold sensitivity. Overexpression of CsMYB44 reduced cold tolerance in Arabidopsis, while its silencing enhanced tolerance in tea plants. Yeast one-hybrid, electrophoretic mobility shift, and dual-luciferase assays demonstrated that CsMYB44 directly binds to the promoters of CsICE1, CsCHS (chalcone synthase), CsFLS (flavonol synthase), and CsANR (anthocyanidin reductase) to repress their expression. In contrast, CsICE1 activates the transcription of CsCHS, CsFLS, and CsANR. RT-qPCR analysis further indicated that short-term cold stress suppresses CsMYB44 expression, thereby releasing CsICE1, which subsequently upregulates CsCHS, CsFLS, and CsANR, promoting flavonoid and catechin accumulation and ultimately mitigating cold-induced damage. Collectively, these findings uncover a novel cold-tolerance mechanism in tea plants.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record, shown for indexing and research. Copyright remains with the authors or the publisher. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 15
Claim · model-written summary
CsICE1 positively correlated with catechin accumulation and cold tolerance.
- Taxon
- Camellia sinensis
Camellia sinensist0 - Gene
- CsICE1e0
- Outcome
- catechin accumulation and cold tolerancee0
- Direction
- positively correlatede0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“CsICE1 was strongly positively correlated with catechin accumulation and cold tolerance”
t0“Camellia sinensis”
Claim · model-written summary
CsMYB44 negatively correlated with catechin accumulation and cold tolerance.
- Taxon
- Camellia sinensisCamellia sinensist0
- Gene
- CsMYB44e0
- Outcome
- these traitse0
- Direction
- negatively correlatede0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“whereas CsMYB44 was negatively correlated with these traits.”
t0“Camellia sinensis”
Claim · model-written summary
CsICE1 overexpression improved Arabidopsis cold tolerance.
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis
Arabidopsise0 - Treatment
- Overexpression of CsICE1e0
- Gene
- CsICE1e0
- Outcome
- cold tolerancee0
- Direction
- improvede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Overexpression of CsICE1 in Arabidopsis improved cold tolerance by elevating flavonoid levels and upregulating antioxidant and cold-responsive genes”
Claim · model-written summary
CsICE1 overexpression elevated Arabidopsis flavonoid levels.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Treatment
- Overexpression of CsICE1e0
- Gene
- CsICE1e0
- Outcome
- flavonoid levelse0
- Direction
- elevatinge0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Overexpression of CsICE1 in Arabidopsis improved cold tolerance by elevating flavonoid levels and upregulating antioxidant and cold-responsive genes”
Claim · model-written summary
CsICE1 overexpression upregulated Arabidopsis antioxidant and cold responsive genes.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Treatment
- Overexpression of CsICE1e0
- Gene
- AtSOD, AtPOD, and AtCBF1e0
- Outcome
- antioxidant and cold-responsive genese0
- Direction
- upregulatinge0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Overexpression of CsICE1 in Arabidopsis improved cold tolerance by elevating flavonoid levels and upregulating antioxidant and cold-responsive genes, including AtSOD, AtPOD, and AtCBF1.”
Claim · model-written summary
Changing CsICE1 expression significantly affected cold sensitivity in tea.
- Taxon
- Camellia sinensisCamellia sinensist0
- Treatment
- overexpression or silencing CsICE1e0
- Gene
- CsICE1e0
- Outcome
- cold sensitivitye0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“overexpression or silencing CsICE1 in tea plants significantly affected cold sensitivity.”
t0“Camellia sinensis”
Claim · model-written summary
CsMYB44 overexpression reduced Arabidopsis cold tolerance.
- Taxon
- ArabidopsisArabidopsise0
- Treatment
- Overexpression of CsMYB44e0
- Gene
- CsMYB44e0
- Outcome
- cold tolerancee0
- Direction
- reducede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Overexpression of CsMYB44 reduced cold tolerance in Arabidopsis”
Claim · model-written summary
Silencing CsMYB44 enhanced tea cold tolerance.
- Taxon
- Camellia sinensisCamellia sinensist0
- Treatment
- silencinge0
- Outcome
- tolerancee0
- Direction
- enhancede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“its silencing enhanced tolerance in tea plants.”
t0“Camellia sinensis”
Claim · model-written summary
CsMYB44 directly binds promoters of CsICE1, CsCHS, CsFLS and CsANR.
- Taxon
- Camellia sinensisCamellia sinensist0
- Gene
- CsMYB44e0
- Outcome
- binds to the promoters of CsICE1, CsCHS (chalcone synthase), CsFLS (flavonol synthase), and CsANR (anthocyanidin reductase)e0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“CsMYB44 directly binds to the promoters of CsICE1, CsCHS (chalcone synthase), CsFLS (flavonol synthase), and CsANR (anthocyanidin reductase) to repress their expression.”
t0“Camellia sinensis”
Claim · model-written summary
CsMYB44 represses expression of its four target genes.
- Taxon
- Camellia sinensisCamellia sinensist0
- Gene
- CsMYB44e0
- Outcome
- their expressione0
- Direction
- represse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“CsMYB44 directly binds to the promoters of CsICE1, CsCHS (chalcone synthase), CsFLS (flavonol synthase), and CsANR (anthocyanidin reductase) to repress their expression.”
t0“Camellia sinensis”
Claim · model-written summary
CsICE1 activates transcription of CsCHS, CsFLS and CsANR.
- Taxon
- Camellia sinensisCamellia sinensist0
- Gene
- CsICE1e0
- Outcome
- transcription of CsCHS, CsFLS, and CsANRe0
- Direction
- activatese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“CsICE1 activates the transcription of CsCHS, CsFLS, and CsANR.”
t0“Camellia sinensis”
Claim · model-written summary
Short term cold stress suppresses CsMYB44 expression.
- Taxon
- Camellia sinensisCamellia sinensist0
- Treatment
- short-term cold stresse0
- Gene
- CsMYB44e0
- Outcome
- CsMYB44 expressione0
- Direction
- suppressese0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“short-term cold stress suppresses CsMYB44 expression”
t0“Camellia sinensis”
Claim · model-written summary
Cold induced CsMYB44 suppression releases CsICE1.
- Taxon
- Camellia sinensisCamellia sinensist0
- Gene
- CsICE1e0
- Outcome
- releasing CsICE1e0
- Qualifier
- short-term cold stress suppresses CsMYB44 expressione0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“short-term cold stress suppresses CsMYB44 expression, thereby releasing CsICE1”
t0“Camellia sinensis”
Claim · model-written summary
Released CsICE1 promotes flavonoid and catechin accumulation through target gene upregulation.
- Taxon
- Camellia sinensisCamellia sinensist0
- Gene
- CsICE1e0
- Outcome
- flavonoid and catechin accumulatione0
- Direction
- promotinge0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“CsICE1, which subsequently upregulates CsCHS, CsFLS, and CsANR, promoting flavonoid and catechin accumulation”
t0“Camellia sinensis”
Claim · model-written summary
The CsICE1 pathway mitigates cold induced damage.
- Taxon
- Camellia sinensisCamellia sinensist0
- Outcome
- cold-induced damagee0
- Direction
- mitigatinge0
- Qualifier
- flavonoid and catechin accumulatione0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“promoting flavonoid and catechin accumulation and ultimately mitigating cold-induced damage.”
t0“Camellia sinensis”
The same questions in other papers
loss of function · disease · Camellia sinensis (black tea)Positive and negative results
4 papers in the same direction as this paper · 4 in the opposite direction
- negative
- negative
- negative
5 papers more in this group
See all 9 papers →cold · molecular: expression · Camellia sinensis (black tea)Results agree
9 papers in the same direction as this paper
- positive
- positive
- positive
6 papers more in this group
See all 10 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.