Current Trends in Biotechnology and Pharmacy

Tea plant is best known as an economically important crop, environment hardy and an Al hyper accumulator. North East India forms one of the largest tea producing regions of the world but 90% of its soil is acidic need. Acidic soil has got major influence on overall crop production, hence it is of utmost necessity to understand the mechanisms of tea plant to adapt to such inhospitable conditions. Through this present investigation we try to understand the changes after exposure to various Al concentrations in TS462 clone of Camellia sinensis [L.] in hydroponic solution. The repercussions were measured in terms of generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and anti-oxidative enzyme activity in both root and shoot tissues of tea plant. When rooted tea cuttings were raised in hydroponic culture containing 50μm, 250μm and 500μm of Al for 60 days, a constant increase in uptake of Al by roots with the increase dose was observed. The increase in Al uptake with dose, corroborated with the production of super oxide anion (O₂⁻) hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and malondialdehyde (MDA). These all repercussions led to an increment in activity of antioxidant machinery during the study showing that better antioxidative response is behind the relatively better tolerance capability of tea plants.