Integrating hormones and transcriptome to explore the formation of dwarf and lateral buds in Capsicum

Plant type in pepper is an important morphological characteristic and reproductive basis, among which dwarfing and lateral buds are important traits of plant type. Significantly, the integrated analysis of metabonomics and transcriptome data helps to elucidate the key metabolites and genes in the formation of plant-type traits, which is helpful to understand the formation of target traits. However, relevant studies on pepper are still lacking. In the current study, three pepper cultivars with significant differences in the two traits were used, then, RNA-seq of stem tissues was performed based on a sequencing platform, and HPLC-LC-MS was used for metabolite determination. The results showed that the low content of key cytokines, gibberellin and high content of auxin may be the important factors causing plant dwarfing. Meanwhile, jasmonic acid may be an important metabolic factor affecting the trait of branches. Moreover, combined with metabolic pathway analysis and transcription factor analysis, a total of 131 candidate genes were obtained, which were involved in metabolite synthesis and affect the formation of two important plant-type traits. These findings provide data support for metabolic and molecular basis of trait formation and give guiding significance for the improvement of rational plant type.