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Peppers are cosmopolitan, a vegetable with more varieties than any nation in the world. One day you can slice a mild orange bell pepper and dip it in hummus. You can roast another paprika and mix them with a sauce or your own sauce. ajvar or romesco. Poblano pepper can add some heat to a plate, even like food Chile Fillings. But Watch out for Carolina Reaper peppers.

What all these dishes have in common is the humble pepper plant, or Capsicum spp. Pasquale Tripodi of the CREA Vegetable and Ornamental Crops Research Center in Italy says the plant originated in Central and South America and eventually crossed the oceans in the hands of traders. In An article published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Tripodi and her European colleagues shared the results of their genetic studies of more than 10,000 pepper samples from around the world.

Their findings reveal intriguing details about the plant’s global travels, such as how a colonial power’s trade networks may have spread peppers far and wide, and how some plants became sweet and crunchy while others took a fiery advantage.

Millions of seeds rest in a handful of cold, isolated rooms known worldwide as plant gene banks. These bins store seeds for use by crop growers and researchers, allowing access to the widest possible variety of traits. A wild eggplant whose roots can withstand mold, a hardy tomato that doesn’t wilt in scorching heat, a wheat that holds its head together in punishing rains – these plants can be grown with tastier varieties in hopes of producing crops for the uncertain future.

Gene banks carefully guide their inhabitants by periodically sprouting seeds and collecting fresh ones to ensure that most of their collections remain viable. But relatively few researchers have turned their genetic sequencing tools over this ocean of genes.

Because gene banks keep track of where each sample was collected, it should be possible to see where a plant like pepper went and if there was a genetic link between certain regions and what happened when they arrived in a new region. replaced by field and newly minted chili enthusiasts.

Dr. Tripodi and her colleagues focused on the most widely consumed group of peppers, Capsicum annuum, the species that ranged from bell peppers of all colors to capsicum and jalapeños. The researchers suggested that Europe and Asia shared several species, and peppers moved along trade routes between East and West. There were also links between Eastern European peppers and those in the Middle East, perhaps reflecting Ottoman trade routes. The team speculates that Portuguese traders moving between South America, Europe, Africa and Asia in the 16th century may have carried some peppers with them, helping to explain the similarities between African peppers and those on either end of this long axis.

After the peppers gained fans in a new location, the farmers seem to have made their own choices over the years; Eastern European peppers were sweeter and less pungent, while East Asian peppers were small and fiery. The researchers uncovered genes associated with these traits and others that could be of use to breeders in the future.

The researchers also made a surprising discovery when checking the data for duplicates – a significant portion of the gene banks’ pepper collections were not unique. This has meant that gene banks unwittingly kept multiple copies of seeds, perhaps in part because without genetic testing it is difficult to tell whether a new seed pack is the same as an existing pack. As sequencing becomes cheaper and easier, it could change the way gene banks work, not only disclosing the past or providing information for breeders, but also shaping the process of preserving these plants for the future.