Effects of pruning on tea tree growth, tea quality, and rhizosphere soil microbial community

Pruning is an important agronomic measure in tea plantation management. This study analyzed the effects of pruning on tea tree growth, tea quality, rhizosphere soil physicochemical indexes, microbial communities, and metabolic pathways. The results showed that pruning was beneficial for promoting tea tree growth and increasing tea yield, but not for the synthesis and accumulation of quality-related compounds in tea leaves. After pruning, organic matter, available phosphorus content and catalase, acid phosphatase, and sucrase activities in rhizosphere soil were significantly higher than those in unpruned tea trees, while total phosphorus, total potassium, and available nitrogen content were significantly lower than those in unpruned tea trees. The results of microbial community analysis of tea rhizosphere soil showed that the key changed characteristic microorganisms after pruning were Haliangium, Acidicaldus, Reyranella, Acidobacterium, Aquicella, and Granulicella, and the key changed characteristic microbial metabolic pathways were ko00072, ko00473, ko00750, ko01055, ko00521, and ko02040. Furthermore, the results found that pruning promoted Haliangium, Acidicaldus, and Reyranella abundances, ko00072, ko00473, and ko00750, respectively, microbial metabolic pathways in tea trees rhizosphere soil, and reduced Acidobacterium, Granulicella, and Aquicella abundance, ko01055, ko00521, and ko02040, respectively, microbial metabolic pathways, thereby increasing the activities of soil catalase, acid phosphatase, and sucrase, improving soil organic matter decomposition efficiency and available phosphorus content, and promoting tea yield, but not synthesis and accumulation of quality-related compounds in tea leaves. This study provides an important theoretical reference for the management of agronomic measures in tea plantations. IMPORTANCE: Pruning is an important agronomic measure in tea cultivation and management. We found that pruning was beneficial to increase tea yield, but it would reduce tea quality, especially the content of polyphenols, theanine, flavonoids, and free amino acids in tea leaves was reduced. The reason for this phenomenon was that pruning promotes the enrichment of special functional microorganisms and the enhancement of special metabolic pathways in the soil, leading to changes in the nutrient cycle in the soil.