3.1 Geraniol synthase candidates identified by analysis of gene expression levels and geraniol accumulation in tea plants
We identified TPS genes in tea plants from recently published tea genome sequences in the Tea Plant Information Archive (TPIA,http://tpia.teaplant.org). Gene expression levels and terpenoid abundances permitted the identification of geraniol synthase (CsGES ) genes in tea plants. Geraniol synthase candidates were obtained based on the correlations between all TPS genes and the content of geraniol in the different tissues of tea plants as well as a gene-to-metabolite network (Figure 1A). A total of 27 TPS genes were screened, and eight geraniol synthase candidates (CsTPS1–CsTPS8 ) positively associated with the geraniol content (indicated by dark green dots in Figure 1A) were selected for further study.