Where the chilli was born: Researchers find Mexico is home for the fiery crop

Researchers say discovery helps map the evolution of farming

Domesticated chilli pepper the world's most widely grown spice crop



The birthplace of the chilli has been pinpointed in Mexico.



Researchers have concluded that central east Mexico gave birth to the domesticated chilli pepper - now the world's most widely grown spice crop.

Using a variety of methods, the team was able to pinpoint an area extending from southern Puebla and northern Oaxaca to south eastern Veracruz.



Researchers have found that central east Mexico gave birth to the domesticated chilli pepper - now the world's most widely grown spice crop.

The international team of researchers carried out a four-pronged investigation - based on linguistic and ecological evidence as well as the more traditional archaeological and genetic data - which suggests a regional, rather than a geographically specific, birthplace for the domesticated chilli pepper.



The researchers concluded that this region - extending from southern Puebla and northern Oaxaca to south eastern Veracruz - is further south than was previously thought.



The region also is different from areas of origin that have been suggested for common bean and corn, which were presumably domesticated in Western Mexico.



Study leader Doctor Paul Gepts, a plant scientist at the University of California, said: 'Identifying the origin of the chilli pepper is not just an academic exercise.



'By tracing back the ancestry of any domesticated plant, we can better understand the genetic evolution of that species and the origin of agriculture - a major step in human evolution in different regions of the world.



'This information, in turn, better equips us to develop sound genetic conservation programs and increases the efficiency of breeding programs, which will be critically important as we work to deal with climate change and provide food for a rapidly increasing global population.'



Study co-author Doctor Gary Nabhan, an ethnobiologist and agroecologist at the University of Arizona, said: 'This is the first research ever to integrate multiple lines of evidence in attempts to pinpoint where, when, under what ecological conditions, and by whom a major global spice plant was domesticated.



'In fact, this may be the only crop-origins research to have ever predicted the probable first cultivators of one of the world's most important food crops.'



To determine crop origins, scientists have traditionally studied the plants' genetic make-up in geographic areas where they have observed high diversity among the crop's wild ancestors.



To determine crop origins, scientists have traditionally studied the plants' genetic make-up in geographic areas where they have observed high diversity among the crop's wild ancestors.

More recently, they have also examined archaeological remains of plants, including pollen, starch grains and even mineralised plant secretions.



For the chilli pepper study, the researchers used these two traditional approaches but also considered historical languages, looking for the earliest linguistic evidence that a cultivated chilli pepper existed.



They also developed a model for the distribution of related plant species, to predict the areas most environmentally suitable for the chili pepper and its wild ancestors.



Dr Gepts said the genetic evidence seemed to point more to north eastern Mexico as the chilli pepper's area of domestication, but there was collectively more evidence from all four lines of study supporting the central-east region as the area of origin.

