Formation and Regulation Mechanism of Ascorbic Acid in Sweet Pepper and Chili Pepper at Different Growth Stages

To investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying ascorbic acid (AsA) accumulation in pepper fruits and to identify key genes involved in its biosynthesis, we performed integrated metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses on two pepper cultivars—T41 (sweet pepper) and 22-5 (chili pepper)—at three developmental stages, including young fruit, green ripe, and color change stages. The results show that AsA content in both cultivars was significantly higher at the green ripe stage than the young...