Ruirui Zhang¹, Yueyue Tian², Xiaoyue Lun¹, Yan Cao¹, Xiangzhi Zhang¹, Meina Jin¹, Feiyu Guan¹, Liping Wang¹, Yunhe Zhao¹ Zhengqun Zhang¹

^Abstract

^{Empoasca onukii Matsuda is a pest which severely damages tea plants. In this study, an isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ)-based quantitative proteomic analysis was performed to compare the leaves of two tea cultivars 'Huangjinya' and 'Fudingdabaicha' after E. onukii feeding. qRT-PCR was used to detect the gene expression levels of tea plants feeding by E. onukii with different population densities. The results showed that there were 168,983 specific spectra, 31,292 specific peptides, and 8,901 proteins being identified in 'Huangjinya' and 'Fudingdabaicha'. PsaF and LHCA1 in Photosystem I were induced to be down-regulated in 'Huangjinya' under E. onukii infestation. In the lignin biosynthesis pathway, LAC1, LAC3, and POD1 were up-regulated significantly and POD11 was down-regulated in 'Huangjinya'. POD1 was up-regulated 2.01-fold in 'Huangjinya' and 1.73-fold in 'Fudingdabaicha' compared to the control. The qRT-PCR results showed several genes, such as CsLAC2, CsCCR1, CsCCR2, CsCAD1, and CsCAD3 showed a trend of increasing, then decreasing and then sharply increasing expression in the low-density E. onukii-infested tea plant treatments. The results suggested that proteins involved in photosynthesis, such as PHCs, FNRs, and LHCs, showed down-regulation and proteins involved in lignin biosynthesis, such as PODs, CADs, and LACs, were upregulated in response to infestation by E. onukii. Through the changes in lignin synthesis-related genes, we hypothesized that there was a 'stress response-adaptation-defense response' process in the tea plants under E. onukii infestation. Our results provide insights into the dynamics and molecular mechanisms of two tea cultivars against E. onukii infestation.}

^{Paper Linkage:https://doi.org/10.48130/bpr-0023-0039}