date:Jan 09, 2019
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Tomatoes and chili peppers both derive from a common ancestor 19 million years ago and still share some of the same DNA. The tomato split off to become fleshy, nutrient-rich and easy in its cultivation, while the chili pepper turned defensive, developing capsaicinoids to ward off predators and is challenging to produce in large quantities.
Using modern gene-editing technology may allow us to engineer the capsaicinoid pathway to the tomato and make it easier to mass produce large quantities