Physiological Responses of Ancient Wild Tea Tree at Different Altitudes in Qianjiazhai

Purpose To study the physiological characteristics of leaves of ancient wild tea tree on different altitudes (2050, 2200, 2350 and 2500 m).

MethodWild tea tree (Camellia talinensis) in Qianjiazhai Nature Reserve, Zhenyuan County, Yunnan Province, was selected as materials, and the contents of proline, photosynthetic pigment, glucose, starch, protein as well as the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and catalase (CAT) in the leaves under different altitudes were determined.

ResultThe contents of Chla and Chla/Chlb increased firstly and then decreased, while Chl a+b and carotenoid contents increased firstly, then decreased and then increased with the altitude increasing, and reached the top value at 2 200 m altitude. Simultaneously, the contents of glucose, starch, soluble protein were also significantly higher at the elevation of 2 200 m than at other atitudes (P<0.05). In addition, antioxidant enzymes were also obviously affected by altitudes, among which the POD and APX showed a increasing trend with the increase of altitude, and had higher activities at the altitude of 2 500 m.

ConclusionThe habitat conditions at 2 200 m altitude in Qianjiazhai Nature Reserve was more adaptive for the physiological metabolism and the accumulation of photosynthetic products, such as starch or sugar.