CsEXL3 Regulate Mechanical Harvest-related Droopy Leaves Under the Transcriptional Activation of CsBES1.2 in Tea Plant

Due to a labor shortage, the mechanical harvesting of tea plantations has become a focal point. However, mechanical harvest efficiency was hampered by droopy leaves, leading to a high rate of broken tea shoots and leaves. Here, we dissected the genetic structure of leaf droopiness in tea plants using genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on 146 accessions, combined with transcriptome from two accessions with contrasting droopy leaf phenotypes. A set of 16 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) containing 54 SNPs and 34 corresponding candidate genes associated with droopiness were then identified. Among these, CsEXL3 (EXORDIUM-LIKE 3) from Chromosome 1 emerged as a candidate gene. Further investigations revealed that silencing in tea plants resulted in weaker vascular cell malformation and brassinosteroid-induced leaf droopiness. Additionally, brassinosteroid signal factor CsBES1.2 was proved to participate in induced droopiness and vascular cell malformation via using the -silencing tea plant. Notably, CsBES1.2 bound on the E-box of promoter to transcriptionally activate expression as CUT&TAG based ChIP-qPCR and ChIP-seq suggested as well as EMSA and Y1H indicated . Furthermore, CsEXL3 instead of CsBES1.2 decreased lignin content and the expressing levels of lignin biosynthesis genes. Overall, our findings suggest that CsEXL3 regulates droopy leaves, partially through the transcriptional activation of CsBES1.2, with the potential to improve mechanical harvest efficiency in tea plantations.