ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 06 March 2017 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2017.00291 Integrated Transcriptome and Metabolic Analyses Reveals Novel Insights into Free Amino Acid Metabolism in Huangjinya Tea Cultivar Qunfeng Zhang 1, 2, Meiya Liu 1, 2 and Jianyun Ruan 1, 2* 1 Tea Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China, 2 Key Laboratory for Plant Biology and Resource Application of Tea, The Ministry of Agriculture, Hangzhou, China The chlorotic tea variety Huangjinya, a natural mutant, contains enhanced levels of free amino acids in its leaves, which improves the drinking quality of its brewed tea. Consequently, this chlorotic mutant has a higher economic value than the non-chlorotic Edited by: varieties. However, the molecular mechanisms behind the increased levels of free amino Basil J. Nikolau, Iowa State University, USA acids in this mutant are mostly unknown, as are the possible effects of this mutation Reviewed by: on the overall metabolome and biosynthetic pathways in tea leaves. To gain further John A. Morgan, insight into the effects of chlorosis on the global metabolome and biosynthetic pathways Purdue University, USA Vinay Kumar, in this mutant, Huangjinya plants were grown under normal and reduced sunlight, Central University of Punjab, India resulting in chlorotic and non-chlorotic leaves, respectively; their leaves were analyzed *Correspondence: using transcriptomics as well as targeted and untargeted metabolomics. Approximately Jianyun Ruan 5,000 genes (8.5% of the total analyzed) and ca. 300 metabolites (14.5% of the total
[email protected] detected) were significantly differentially regulated, thus indicating the occurrence of Specialty section: marked effects of light on the biosynthetic pathways in this mutant plant.