Clearly, the presence of fleshy juicy edibles near the seed has developed
more than once, in several different lineages. DNA has nothing to with it.

The fact that the berry of nightshade is poisonous to humans does not mean
it is necessarily poisonous to all possible dispersing animals.
PvR

"Dick Chambers" schreef
I know, of course, that edible fruit has evolved by natural selection. The
sweet-tasting fleshy fruits attract animals, who eat the fruit, spit out
the seeds, and inadvertently sow the next generation of the plant. This
evolution process may have started, millions of years ago, with a
not-very-satisfying fruit, and natural selection has caused the evolution
of the fruit into the sweet and fleshy forms we know today. The tastier and
the fleshier the fruit, the better it will attract animals to spread the
seed.

My question is:- Why did the prototype form of fruit ever exist in the
first place, many millions of years ago? Why did seeds ever have fleshy
fruit around them, however thinly and however bitter-tasting, from which
the evolution process could begin? Could the flesh of the fruit have been a
botanical form of placenta, separating the DNA of the mother plant from
the DNA of the seed? i.e. performing a similar function to that of the
placenta in the animal kingdom. Is there any evidence to support this
hypothesis? Does the flesh in (for example) the modern peach perform the
function of DNA-separation, in addition to its well-known function of
attracting an animal to eat it and spread the seed?

What function does the flesh of the berry have in Deadly Nightshade? As
the berries are poisonous, the plant does not rely on animals to spread the
seed. The flesh of the berry would therefore seem redundant, unless it
also has some other function, such as a botanical form of placenta.

Richard Chambers Leeds UK.