{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,16]],"date-time":"2026-09-16T06:04:41Z","timestamp":1789538681615,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,16]],"date-time":"2026-09-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789516800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Plant Sci."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Members of the Universal Stress Protein (USP) family are crucial for plant abiotic stress responses and growth regulation.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      In this study, we identified 30\n                      <jats:italic>CaUSP<\/jats:italic>\n                      genes in the pepper genome. These genes were distributed across all 12 chromosomes and phylogenetically classified into eight distinct subgroups. Collinearity analysis revealed evolutionary relationships between the USP families of pepper and\n                      <jats:italic>Arabidopsis<\/jats:italic>\n                      . Cis-acting element analysis indicated that\n                      <jats:italic>CaUSP<\/jats:italic>\n                      gene promoters harbour multiple stress-, hormone-, and development-related motifs. Expression profiling showed that\n                      <jats:italic>CaUSP19<\/jats:italic>\n                      is highly expressed in floral organs, with a marked increase during the late bud development stage, suggesting a potential role in reproductive development. Using virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS), we demonstrated that knockdown of\n                      <jats:italic>CaUSP19<\/jats:italic>\n                      significantly reduced pollen viability and germination.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results and Discussion:<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Collectively, this study provides a systematic genome-wide overview of the pepper\n                      <jats:italic>CaUSP<\/jats:italic>\n                      family and reveals a novel role for\n                      <jats:italic>CaUSP19<\/jats:italic>\n                      in regulating pollen viability, thereby laying a foundation for further investigation of USP functions in plant reproduction.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  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