The cDNA sequence of Capal gene was cloned from Capsicum chinense Jacq by RT-PCR and sequenced. Bioinformatics analysis showed that Capal en- codes a putative polypeptide of 683 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 74.2 kD and a theoretical pl of 6.9. Multiple sequence alignments and phyloge- netic tree analyses showed that Capal protein of C. chinense is similar to that of Capsicum annuum var. conoides, with an overall sequence similarity of 96%. The prokaryotic expression vector pET-32a-pal was constructed and induced to express in E. coil BL21. The SDS-PAGE analysis showed that the relative molecular mass of the induced new protein is about 74 kD, which was basically identical with that predicted by DNAMAN software （74.3 kD）, Real-time PCR analysis showed that ex- ogenous jasmonic acid （JA） promoted pal expression. The accumulation of capsaicin in pepper was analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography （HPLC）, and the results indicated that exogenous jasmonic acid （JA） can promote the synthesis of capsaicin. This study will provide valuable experimental basis for the research of transcription regulation and explaining the gene function of pal.
