Capsicum pubescens Ruiz & Pav.: evolutionary history, genetic resources and future opportunities for an overlooked Andean chile

Nahuel Ezequiel Palombo , Marisel Analía Scaldaferro, Carolina Carrizo García

Growing concerns over food security, agrobiodiversity loss, and climate change are driving renewed interest in neglected and underutilized crops with high agronomic, nutritional, and adaptive potential. Capsicum pubescens Ruiz & Pav. is one of the five domesticated chile pepper species and a distinctive crop of Andean agriculture. Adapted to cool mountain environments and characterized by its conspicuous pubescence, purple flowers, and dark seeds, the species has long played important culinary, cultural, and economic roles across the Central Andes. Despite its uniqueness, C. pubescens remains comparatively understudied relative to other cultivated chiles. Here, we review current knowledge on its evolutionary history, diversity, domestication, genetic resources, and prospects for conservation and crop improvement. Available evidence supports a Central Andean origin and identifies the inter-Andean valleys of the Bolivian Yungas as the primary center of diversity and the most plausible center of domestication, although the direct wild progenitor of the species remains unknown. Recent genomic studies reveal substantial genetic variation, with the highest diversity concentrated in Bolivia and distinct northern and southern lineages shaped by human-mediated dispersal across the Americas. We also highlight important gaps in germplasm conservation, particularly the underrepresentation of Bolivian diversity and the limited ex situ coverage of the three wild relatives of C. pubescens in public collections. The growing availability of genomic resources creates new opportunities for evolutionary research, conservation planning, and crop improvement. We argue that C. pubescens represents a valuable yet overlooked biocultural, agricultural, and genetic resource deserving greater scientific and conservation attention.