Understanding and exploring the diversity of soil microorganisms in tea (Camellia sinensis) gardens: toward sustainable tea production

Front Microbiol. 2024 Apr 12:15:1379879. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1379879. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Leaves of Camellia sinensis plants are used to produce tea, one of the most consumed beverages worldwide, containing a wide variety of bioactive compounds that help to promote human health. Tea cultivation is economically important, and its sustainable production can have significant consequences in providing agricultural opportunities and lowering extreme poverty. Soil parameters are well known to affect the quality of the resultant leaves and consequently, the understanding of the diversity and functions of soil microorganisms in tea gardens will provide insight to harnessing soil microbial communities to improve tea yield and quality. Current analyses indicate that tea garden soils possess a rich composition of diverse microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) of which the bacterial Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Firmicutes and Chloroflexi and fungal Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Glomeromycota are the prominent groups. When optimized, these microbes' function in keeping garden soil ecosystems balanced by acting on nutrient cycling processes, biofertilizers, biocontrol of pests and pathogens, and bioremediation of persistent organic chemicals. Here, we summarize research on the activities of (tea garden) soil microorganisms as biofertilizers, biological control agents and as bioremediators to improve soil health and consequently, tea yield and quality, focusing mainly on bacterial and fungal members. Recent advances in molecular techniques that characterize the diverse microorganisms in tea gardens are examined. In terms of viruses there is a paucity of information regarding any beneficial functions of soil viruses in tea gardens, although in some instances insect pathogenic viruses have been used to control tea pests. The potential of soil microorganisms is reported here, as well as recent techniques used to study microbial diversity and their genetic manipulation, aimed at improving the yield and quality of tea plants for sustainable production.

Keywords: microbial communities; soil health; soil microorganisms; tea gardens; tea plant.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was financed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 32270029, U1803232, 31670026), the National Key R&D Program of China (no. 2017YFE0122000), Social Service Team Support Program Project (no. 11899170165) and Science and Technology Innovation Special Fund (no. KFB23084) of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fujian Provincial Major Science and Technology Project (no. 2022NZ029017), Key Project from Fujian Provincial Department of Science and Technology (no. 2020N5005), and the Young and Middle-aged Teacher Education Research Project of Fujian Province (no. JAT210075).