Tea tree pruning, an essential agronomic practice for maintaining the plant's table height, leads to the gradual accumulation of allelochemicals and accompanying changes in the physicochemical and biological properties of tea garden soils. The accumulated allelochemicals coupled with disturbance in the soil properties including soil microbiota gradually lead to ‘soil-sickness’ impeding the establishment of newly-planted tea saplings (replanting) and tea crop productivity. Although pruning is an essential and regular practice in tea management, its effect on the soil properties and the microbial populations is less understood. We used a metagenomics approach to decipher and compare the microbial community structure and functional characteristics in tea soils under pruning and non-pruning practices. Principal component analysis indicated the metagenomes of the two sample plots to be unique with key microbial taxa and metabolic pathways. The plot with pruned crops had significantly lesser microbial abundances and richness, but it harbored a relatively higher proportion of biologically important soil bacteria such as Pseudomonas, Candidatus Solibacter, Rhodopseudomonas and Nitrobacter. This indicated that a specific population and its associated soil functions play a significant role in plant growth and survival under stress conditions. The metabolic functions related to microbial growth and reproduction were prevalent in both metagenomes as revealed through the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGGs) and Cluster of Orthologous Groups (COGs) analyses. The pruned-plot-metagenome contained six metabolic pathways linked to different stress-responsive metabolisms (starch, arginine and proline, pyrimidine, ribosome, and peroxisome). Although long-term pruning in tea plantations can decrease the microbial abundance, richness, and functions in soil, plants under these stress conditions may selectively encourage the growth and colonization of functionally-important microorganisms to aid in their survivability.

茶树修剪是保持植物台高的重要农艺实践，会导致化感化学物质的逐渐积累以及茶园土壤的物理化学和生物学特性的相应变化。累积的化感物质加上土壤微生物群等土壤特性的干扰逐渐导致“土壤病”，阻碍了新种植的茶树（补种）和茶树作物的生产力。尽管修剪是茶叶管理中必不可少的常规做法，但其对土壤特性和微生物种群的影响却鲜为人知。我们使用宏基因组学方法来破译和比较修剪和非修剪实践下茶土中的微生物群落结构和功能特征。主成分分析表明，两个样本地块的宏基因组具有独特的关键微生物分类群和代谢途径。修剪作物的地块的微生物丰度和丰富度显着降低，但它含有相对较高比例的具有生物学意义的土壤细菌，例如假单胞菌属、念珠菌属、红假单胞菌属和硝化杆菌属. 这表明特定种群及其相关的土壤功能在胁迫条件下对植物生长和存活起着重要作用。正如京都基因和基因组百科全书 (KEGGs) 和直系同源群 (COGs) 分析所揭示的，与微生物生长和繁殖相关的代谢功能在两个宏基因组中都很普遍。修剪后的宏基因组包含与不同的应激反应代谢相关的六种代谢途径（淀粉、精氨酸和脯氨酸、嘧啶、核糖体和过氧化物酶体）。尽管茶园的长期修剪会降低土壤中微生物的丰度、丰富度和功能，但处于这些压力条件下的植物可能会选择性地促进功能重要微生物的生长和定殖，以帮助它们的生存能力。