Abstract: Tea plant is a fluoride hyper-accumulator and most of fluoride is accumulated in the leaves. Drinking tea is an important way to absorb fluoride for human, which affects human health. Fluoride is usually absorbed from the soil by tea roots. However, the physiological and molecular mechanisms of transmembrane fluoride uptake by the tea roots were still poorly documented. Therefore, this paper reviewed the active and passive pathways of fluoride uptake by the roots of tea. The active transmembrane uptake fluoride process and molecular mechanism by H⁺-ATPase and Ca²⁺-ATPase, the role and microscopic process of ion channel and Al-F complexation by passive fluoride uptake were analyzed. The main influencing factors and control measures of fluoride accumulation in tea roots were also investigated. In order to reveal the molecular mechanism of transmembrane fluoride uptake, regulate the selective fluoride uptake in tea roots, and ensure the tea quality and safety for consumption, cloning, expression, and functional verification of transport proteins and genes related to fluoride transmembrane uptake in tea plant should receive more attention in future studies.

Key words: tea roots, fluoride, transmembrane uptake, physiological and molecular mechanism, influencing factor