Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is a vegetable consumed worldwide, primarily used for vitamin C uptake and condiment purposes. Ascorbate (Asc) is a multifunctional metabolite, acting as an antioxidant and enzymatic cofactor involved in multiple cellular processes. Nevertheless, there is no evidence about the contribution of biosynthesis pathways and regulatory mechanisms responsible for Asc reserves in pepper plants. Here, we present a genome- and transcriptome-wide investigation of genes responsible for Asc biosynthesis in pepper during fruit development, stresses, and phytohormone exposures. A total of 21 genes, scattered in ten of twelve pepper chromosomes were annotated. Gene expression analyses of nine transcriptomic experiments supported the primary role of the L-galactose pathway in the Asc-biosynthesizing process, given its constitutive, ubiquitous, and high expression profile observed in all studied conditions. However, genes from alternative pathways generally exhibited low expression or were unexpressed and appeared to play some secondary role under specific stress conditions and phytohormone treatments. Taken together, our findings provide a deeper spatio-temporal understanding of expression levels of genes involved in Asc biosynthesis, and they highlight GGP2, GME1 and 2, and GalLDH members from L-galactose pathway as promising candidates for future wet experimentation, addressing the attainment of increase in ascorbate content of peppers and other crops.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi identificar o etnoconhecimento sobre o uso das plantas como fitoterápicos, suas principais indicações para tratamento de saúde, quais partes dos vegetais são utilizadas e as formas de uso e preparo no combate aos problemas de saúde dos moradores na Comunidade do Suassui, em São Miguel do Guamá, no Pará. Para tanto, foram feitas entrevistas com o uso de um roteiro com perguntas abertas. Foram entrevistadas 11 pessoas, que relataram quais plantas medicinais mais utilizavam no seu cotidiano. No total, foram relatadas 18 diferentes espécies de plantas medicinais, com poucas repetições de espécies nos relatos, mostrando assim a grande variedade de plantas no uso medicinal. As partes mais utilizadas das plantas nesse estudo foram o caule e os ramos, os métodos de se adquirir as plantas mais citados foram o extrativismo seguido do cultivo, e a forma de uso mais mencionada foi o chá. Dessa forma, a pesquisa mostrou que as plantas medicinais são abundantemente utilizadas e valorizadas pelos moradores da Comunidade Suassui.

The Chapadinha microregion stands out as the main soybean production hub in eastern Maranhão. The replacement of natural vegetation by soybean production areas has significantly impacted biodiversity, regional water cycles, and ecosystem balance. Therefore, the aim was to evaluate the dynamics of land use and land cover in soybean expansion areas in three municipalities of the Chapadinha microregion using Geographic Information System (GIS), geoprocessing techniques, and multivariate analysis. The methodology integrates the use of two approaches for spatiotemporal analysis. The first approach utilizes the dataset obtained from the Annual Land Use and Land Cover Mapping Project in Brazil (MAPBIOMAS) for the municipalities of Chapadinha, Anapurus, and Mata Roma, for the years 1985, 2009, and 2021, while the second consists of multivariate analysis to understand the dynamics of land use classes. The results revealed that the area dedicated to soybean cultivation significantly increased, reaching 6,442 hectares in Chapadinha, 8,200 hectares in Mata Roma, and 10,825 hectares in Anapurus in 2021. Multivariate analysis highlighted a substantial increase in soybean-cultivated lands in Anapurus and Mata Roma in the years 2009 and 2021, contrasting with the reduction in areas of forest and savanna formations. This study provides an overview of the advancement of soybean cultivation expansion on the agricultural frontier of the Chapadinha microregion.