The removal of flower buds improves the yield and quality of tea shoots by mediating carbon and nitrogen metabolism in the source leaves

The removal of flower buds is an important agricultural method to produce high yielding and high-quality tea. However, the underlying mechanism by which the removal of flower buds improves the yield and quality of tea remains unclear. In this study, we combined physiology, biochemistry, and multi-omics to investigate the effect of the removal of flower buds on carbon and nitrogen metabolism in the source leaves of tea plants. The results showed that the removal of flower buds reduced the photosynthetic activity of source leaves and decreased the contents of total carbon and carbon compounds but increased the contents of total nitrogen and nitrogen compounds. Moreover, a multi-omics analysis also revealed that these changes were mainly mediated by the removal of flower buds in carbon and nitrogen metabolism of the source leaves, with some transcription factors (bHLH, NAC, WRKY, MYB, G2-like and Trihelix), sugar transporters, and amino acid transporters playing key roles in the process. This study provides important evidence that the removal of flower buds is a promising strategy to improve the yield and quality of tea by mediating carbon and nitrogen metabolism in the source leaves.