There is more A hundred ways to prepare a potato, and thousands of stories started with a photo of vodka distilled from this tuber. For centuries, the potato has helped feed the growing population of the world. According to a study, the introduction of the Potato of the Americas represented about a quarter of demographic growth in the old world between 1700 and 1900.
Now, science reveals the surprising origins of vegetables: it appeared 9 million years ago following an unusual hybridization between an ancestor of tomatoes and an ancient South American plant. This revelation rewrites the evolutionary history of one of the most consumed foods in the world and also explains how a simple tuber has become a pillar of world diet.
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences have carried out the most extensive genomic analysis to date on the domestic potato. They studied cultivated varieties as well as 44 wild species, performing unprecedented genetic sequencing. The results revealed a stable mixture of genetic material between Potato (traditional potato) and an ancestor of Solanum Lycopersicum (tomato).
The discovery suggests that potatoes as we know them today stem from a hybridization process between an old tomato plant and other Solanum-The species linked to the Etuberosum family which, until then, did not produce tubers. The results were published in the journal Cell.
The potato and tomato share a common ancestor who lived about 13 million years ago. Four million years later, their descendants succeeded. From this union emerged a new plant with the ability to form tubers: metro structures that store energy in the form of carbohydrates and allow reproduction without needing seeds or pollination. This biological innovation has facilitated the expansion of the first potatoes in regions with various climates, hot and cold environments.
The study also identified revealing genetic details. The SP6A gene, considered to be the “switch” which determines if a plant will develop tubers, comes from the tomato. On the other hand, the IT1 gene, which regulates the growth of the metro stems which form the edible tuber, comes from plants of the Etuberosum family, originally from South America.
Considering the chronology of hybridization and geolocation of the species involved, the researchers proposed a hypothesis on the origin of the potato. During the Miocene, between 10 and 6 million years ago, the brutal geological uprising of the Andes, driven by the collision of two tectonic plates, generated new cold climatic regions. Scientists believe that this geological change has forced the plants to adapt to survive and develop, with two of them meeting to train PotatoThat millions of years later would eventually accompany your burger in the form of fries.
This story originally appeared on Cable in Spanish and was translated from Spanish.
