Physiological and biochemical characterization of tea (Camellia sinensis L.) microshoots in vitro: the norm, osmotic stress, and effects of calcium

Stress tolerance is an important trait, that determines the productivity of plants under drought, hypothermia, mineral deficiency, and salinity. Numerous studies of various agricultural crops (J.K. Zhu, 2016; E. Fleta-Soriano, S. Munné-Bosch, 2016), including tea crop ( Camellia sinensis L.), were aimed at solving this problem due to the global aridization of the climate. (T.K. Maritim et al., 2015; L.S. Samarina et al., 2019). Along with the sufficiently detailed physiological, biochemical and molecular studies of tea drought tolerance, the exogenous regulation of tolerance by using of chemical and biological substances is still not investigated. In addition, the important role of calcium ions (Ca2+) in the cell recognition of an external stressor by the triggering signal transduction has been shown in many crops (M.C. Kim, 2009; E.G. Rikhvanov et al., 2014). In these studies, tissue culture media supplemented with the osmotically active substances (R.M. Pérez-Clemente et al., 2012; M.K. Rai et al., 2011) and artificial biosystems (microshoots and tissues in vitro), are often used as “drought models” to reveal cellular adaptation mechanisms. However, just a few studies were conducted aimed at deciphering the biochemical and molecular responses of tea plant to stress using tissue culture tool (L.S. Samarina et al., 2018; M.V. Gvasaliya et al., 2019). In this article, for the first time, we investigated the role of calcium in plant adaptation to long-term osmotic stress based on earlier published protocols of tea tissue culture (M.V. Gvasaliya, 2013) and osmotic stress induction protocols. We also demonstrated the prospect of studying the role of exogenous inducers in increasing plant tolerance using “drought models”. This work aimed to identify the effect of different concentrations of calcium (Ca2+) in the culture medium on the functional state of tea microshoots grown under mannitol-induced osmotic stress in vitro comparing with control. The changes in morphophysiological state of the leaves, leaves water content, cells membrane permeability, malondialdehyde, proline, and photosynthetic pigments were analyzed. It was found that increased Ca2+ content in the nutrient medium (from 440 to 880 mg/l) resulted the slower leaves development and significant decrease of malondialdehyde and cell membranes permeability of tea microshoots (by 50 %, р ≤ 0.05) during the long-term cultivation of tea microshoots in vitro (4 months), indicating inhibition of lipid peroxidation processes. The addition of mannitol (40 g/l) to the culture medium reduced the water content of the shoots (on average by 2 %, р ≤ 0.05), thereby forming light osmotic stress, which led to the accumulation of proline (an increase of 30-40 %, р ≤ 0.05), as well as to the structural and functional rearrangement of the photosynthetic apparatus (a decrease in the amount of photosynthetic pigments by an average of 35-40 %). In addition, a significant decrease of malondialdehyde (by 50-70 %, p ≤ 0.05) and the intensity of electrolyte leakage from leaf tissues (on average by 50 %, p ≤ 0.05) were observed, indicating a less pronounced oxidative stress in comparison with control (without mannitol). An increase in the Ca2+ concentration in the nutrient medium (from 440 to 880 mg/l) (in the presence of mannitol) did not significantly affect the water content in the leaves and the photosynthetic apparatus (content and ratio of chlorophylls/carotenoids). An insignificant effect of calcium (in the presence of mannitol) manifested itself in a significant decrease in malondialdehyde by 20 μmol/g dry weight. Consequently, the increased concentration of calcium (660-880 mg/l) in the nutrient medium provides an improvement in the functional state of long-term cultivated tea microshoots in vitro (4 months) by reducing the activity of lipid peroxidation in membranes and increasing their stability. The revealed patterns confirm the positive role of calcium ions in the reduction of combined oxidative stress caused by long-term cultivation of plants in vitro in combination with osmotic stress.