Abiotic Resistance of Tea Plant in the Functional Genomic Era

As a thermophilic and hygrophilous evergreen woody species, tea plant (Camellia sinensis) is sensitive to various abiotic stresses, such as extreme temperature, drought, and salinity. When suffering from abiotic stresses, a series of changes from gene expression to biochemical and physiological modifications occur in tea plants. To improve the abiotic stress resistance of tea plant, over the past few decades, more attention has been paid on exploring the molecular response mechanism of tea plants. In recent years, following the application of muti-omics techniques and the genome sequencing of many tea plant cultivars, the research on abiotic resistance of tea plant has entered the functional genomic era. Here, we summarize recent major advances in transcriptional, posttranscriptional, and posttranslational regulation of abiotic resistance, especially for extreme temperature and drought stress in tea plant, and also list some future directions for extensively exploring the abiotic-resistance molecular mechanism of tea plant. This review will provide valuable information for further research on the molecular mechanism governing functional genes in tea plant response to abiotic stresses.