Abstract
Catechins includ galloylated catechins and non-galloylated catechins, among which galloylated catechins exhibit stronger antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer activities. Section Chrysantha Chang, the only group of yellow Camellia with rich catechins in their flowers, is a common health drink in southern China. To date, few studies have examined galloylated catechins biosynthesis in flowers of this group. To enrich the genetic information of the galloylated catechins biosynthesis, the ONT sequencing platform was used to perform full-length transcriptome sequencing of C. perpetua flowers and 7,972,574 transcripts was identified, including 42,883 simple sequence repeats (SSRs), 41,961 coding sequences (CDSs) and 2,602 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). 36,516 transcripts were successfully annotated, and 147 critical enzyme-encoding genes were identified as involved in the galloylated catechins biosynthesis pathway, including 17 CpSCPL1A genes. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that each CpSCPL1A protein consisted of 427-506 amino acids, and all CpSCPL1A proteins were divided into 5 groups with conserved motifs 1, 4, 5, 6 and 8. Based on the correlation analysis between the gene expression of 17 CpSCPL1A genes and the content of galloylated catechins, 11 candidate CpSCPL1A genes were identified to be involved in the biosynthesis of 4 types of galloylated catechins in C. perpetua flowers. The results enrich the transcriptome data for C. perpetua and provide valuable insights into the importance of the CpSCPL1A gene family members in the galloylated catechins biosynthesis.