REN Hengze, ZHANG Lixia, XIANG Qinzeng, HAN Xiaoyang, YU Qian, CAI Lu
In order to explore the appropriate treatment of rooting agent and endogenous hormone changes in softwood cuttings of three-year-old Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze cv. Taicha12 with different tenderness, twigs were used to investigate the contents of IAA, ZR, GA3 and ABA in different tissues by Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). And the effects of soaking duration of rooting agent on the endogenous hormone contents in the basal stem and the rapid propagation of tea cuttings were also studied. The results showed that in one bud and one leaf to one bud and two leaves (BL1), semi-functional leaf (L2), the first functional leaf (L3) and itslinked stem (S1), the second functional leaf (L4) and its linked stem (S2), the third functional leaf (L5) and its linked stem (S3), the stem near the fourth functional leaf (S4), the highest contents of IAA and ABA were observed in the second functional leaves. The highest content of ZR was found in the third functional leaves. And the content of GA3 increased with the increase of leaf maturity. The contents of IAA in S1-S3 were significantly higher than that in S4. However, the content of ABA in S1 was significantly higher than those in S2-S4. After ABT-1 rooting agent treatment (100 mg·L-1), the content of IAA in the basal stem significantly increased and the IAA/ABA and (IAA+ZR+GA3)/ABA values increased to about 1.0, which facilitated the formation of roots. During one hour treatment of the rooting agent, the IAA content rapidly increased and the IAA/ABA and (IAA+ZR+GA3)/ABA values also increased to about 1.0 in the cuttings with one or two functional leaves and apical shoot (F1-1, F2-1). For other cuttings, the above three indicators reached the maximum value after treatment for 4 h. The best treatment duration for different cuttings were different, with F1-1, F2-1 for 0.5-1 h, the cuttings with one functional leaf and excised apical shoot (F1-2) for 4 h, F2-2, F3-1 and F3-2 for 3-4 h. During transplantation, the maximum values of the root vigor, root number and the increase of basal stem diameter occurred in rooting agent treatment for 0-2 h. Other roots and shoots of tea cuttings showed the best growth after 4 h treatment.