Non-targeted and targeted metabolomics profiling of tea plants (Camellia sinensis) in response to its intercropping with Chinese chestnut

BACKGROUND: Intercropping is often used in the tea producing areas where land resources are not so abundant, and the produced green tea is tasted more delicious through a tea-Chinese chestnut intercropping system according to the experience of indigenous farmers. The length and weight of tea leaf increase under this intercropping system and their root systems are stratified vertically and coordinate symbiosis. However, the delicacy mechanism under the intercropping is not fully understood. RESULTS: Green tea from the Chinese chestnut–tea intercropping system established in the 1980s ranked highest compared with a pure tea plantation from the same region. Based on the non-targeted metabolomics, 100 differential metabolites were upregulated in the tea leaves from intercropping system relative to monoculture system. Twenty-one amino acids were upregulated and three downregulated in response to the intercropping based on the targeted metabolomics; half of the upregulated amino acids had positive effects on the tea taste. Levels of allantoic acid, sugars, sugar alcohols, and oleic acid were higher and less bitter flavonoids in the intercropping system than those in monoculture system. The upregulated metabolites could promote the quality of tea and its health-beneficial health effects. Flavone and flavonol biosynthesis and phenylalanine metabolism showed the greatest difference. Numerous pathways associated with amino acid metabolism altered, suggesting that the intercropping of Chinese chestnut–tea could greatly influence amino acid metabolism in tea plants. CONCLUSIONS: These results enhance our understanding of the metabolic mechanisms by which tea quality is improved in the Chinese chestnut–tea intercropping system and demonstrate that there is great potential to improve tea quality at the metabolomic level by adopting such an intercropping system. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12870-021-02841-w.