Fig. 5: Model for the evolution of capsaicin synthase (CS) in pungent and nonpungent Solanaceae plants. | Nature Communications

Fig. 5: Model for the evolution of capsaicin synthase (CS) in pungent and nonpungent Solanaceae plants.

From: Two telomere-to-telomere gapless genomes reveal insights into Capsicum evolution and capsaicinoid biosynthesis

Fig. 5

a The pungent species C. annuum (CaT2T), C. baccatum and C. chinense all have at least one functional CS gene. In addition, C. annuum, C. baccatum and C. chinense have several tandem duplicates of CS genes (formed between 13.38 Mya and 4.8 Mya), most of which are partial gene paralogs and are non-functional. Mya: million years ago. CRE: cis-regulatory elements. b In contrast, the nonpungent tomato (S. lycopersicum), ground berry (P. pubescens), and C. rhomboideum (CrT2T) species lack a functional CS gene, but have various numbers of CS tandem paralogs that include both partial CS or non-expressed CS due to deletion in CREs (formed between 19.28 Mya and 13.38 Mya). c Pungent peppers achieve tissue-specific regulation of capsaicin production through placenta-specific opening of the chromatin region around the CS gene (CS2), as identified by ATAC-seq, thus allowing for its transcription (determined via RNA-seq). In contrast, nonpungent species do not perform capsaicin biosynthesis due to the absence of either functional copies of CS genes or corresponding CREs.

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