Welcome to Chinese Agricultural Science Bulletin,

Chinese Agricultural Science Bulletin ›› 2025, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (7): 67-74.doi: 10.11924/j.issn.1000-6850.casb2024-0339

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Physiological Response of Tea Tree Leaves to Drought Stress

ZHOU Bo1(), TANG Jinchi1(), LI Jianlong1, CHEN Yiyong1, ZHANG Man1, CUI Yingying1, HUANG Xiuxin2   

  1. 1 Tea Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences/ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Resources Innovation and Utilization, Guangzhou 510640
    2 Tea Research Institute of Meizhou Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, Meizhou, Guangdong 514000
  • Received:2024-05-23 Revised:2024-12-18 Online:2025-03-05 Published:2025-03-03

Abstract:

Drought stress directly affects the growth and survival of tea tree. Therefore, understanding the drought tolerance of different tea plants is essential for soil moisture management in tea plantations. In this paper, five tea plant varieties, ‘Jinxuan’, ‘Qingxin 1’, ‘Yinghong 9’, ‘Huangdan’ and ‘Hongyan 12’, were selected, and four levels of normal water supply (T0), mild drought stress (T1), moderate drought stress (T2) and severe drought stress (T3) were set, and the soil water content was 75%, 55%, 35% and 20% of the water holding capacity in the field, respectively. The physiological response of tea plant varieties with different drought resistance to drought stress was investigated. Two drought-resistant varieties (‘Qingxin1’and ‘Huangdan’) and two drought-sensitive varieties (‘Yinghong 9’and ‘Hongyan 12’) were screened out from five tea tree varieties by comparing the relevant indexes of morphology and photosynthetic capacity under drought stress. It could be seen that under normal water supply conditions, the content of protective enzyme activities, endogenous hormones and osmoregulatory substances of drought-resistant tea tree varieties was not necessarily higher than that of drought-sensitive tea plant varieties. Under drought stress, the protective enzyme activities, endogenous hormones and osmoregulatory substance contents of sensitive varieties would also be elevated to a certain extent, but the magnitude of their elevation was generally smaller than that of drought-resistant varieties, and the maximum increase of drought-sensitive tea trees mostly appeared in mild drought stress, whereas that of drought-resistant tea tree varieties mostly appeared in moderate and severe drought stress. Therefore, the amount and timing of changes in physiological responses such as protective enzyme activities, endogenous hormones and osmoregulatory substance contents of tea plants under drought stress can reflect the actual drought tolerance ability of tea plants to some extent.

Key words: drought stress, tea varieties, drought-resistant ability, protective enzyme, physiological response, endogenous hormones, osmoregulatory substances