Adventitious root (AR) formation is essential for the successful propagation of Camellia sinensis. Endogenous phytohormones play an important role in this process, which is strongly dependent on genotype. However, the molecular mechanism underlying this varietal difference is not clearly understood. Here, we combined metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses of new shoots and mature leaves among three cultivars with different rooting abilities and then performed WGCNA to mine key regulators during AR formation. Hormone analysis showed that the easy-to-root cultivar BHZ had a higher indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), salicylic acid, abscisic acid, and jasmonic acids content in new shoots than the other cultivars. A crosstalk regulatory network including 14 coexpression modules was successfully constructed. Among them, a key module which had a highly positive correlation with IAA was identified. The KEGG analysis showed that related genes were enriched in “Plant hormone signal transduction”. Finally, the auxin influx carrier AUX1/LAX family was considered a hub gene in AR formation. Gene expression analysis showed that the expression of CsLAXs was higher in BHZ than other cultivars, and response to different abiotic stresses. Taken together, the present omics-level WGCNA analysis provides novel insights into the molecular mechanism underlying hormonal regulation in adventitious roots formation, and the identified hub genes provide gene resources for improving AR formation.

不定根 (AR) 的形成对于山茶花的成功繁殖至关重要. 内源性植物激素在这个过程中起着重要作用，它强烈依赖于基因型。然而，这种品种差异背后的分子机制尚不清楚。在这里，我们结合了具有不同生根能力的三个品种的新芽和成熟叶的代谢组学和转录组学分析，然后执行 WGCNA 以挖掘 AR 形成过程中的关键调节因子。激素分析表明，易生品种BHZ的新芽中吲哚-3-乙酸(IAA)、水杨酸、脱落酸和茉莉酸含量高于其他品种。成功构建了包含 14 个共表达模块的串扰调控网络。其中，确定了一个与IAA高度正相关的关键模块。KEGG分析显示相关基因在“植物激素信号转导”中富集。最后，生长素流入载体AUX1/LAX家族被认为是 AR 形成中的枢纽基因。基因表达分析表明，CsLAXs在BHZ中的表达高于其他品种，对不同的非生物胁迫有响应。总之，目前的组学水平 WGCNA 分析为不定根形成中激素调节的分子机制提供了新的见解，并且确定的枢纽基因为改善 AR 形成提供了基因资源。