Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
New research out of UC Davis traces the family tree of the domesticated chili pepper back to a region of east central Mexico. In modern cuisine around the globe, the chili pepper figures prominently in varieties from sichuan to habanero. But all have a common ancestor cultivated by the ancient peoples of Mexico.
A team of scientists used genetic data, archaeological clues, ecological evidence and a new approach involving linguistic study of ancient languages, to pinpoint the region where the chili likely originated. Lead study author Paul Gepts, a professor of plant sciences at UC Davis, joins the show to explain.