Latest news with #hybridization
WIRED
6 days ago
- Science
- WIRED
Science Reveals the Surprising Origins of the Potato
Aug 4, 2025 11:43 AM Potatoes as we know them today are the product of a hybridization that took place 9 million years ago between two plants, one of which was an ancestor of the tomato. Photograph: Korneeva Kristina/GETTY IMAGES There are more than a hundred ways to prepare a potato, and thousands of stories have begun with a shot of vodka distilled from this tuber. For centuries, the potato has been instrumental in feeding the world's growing population. According to one study, the introduction of the potato from the Americas accounted for about a quarter of the population growth in the Old World between 1700 and 1900. Now, science reveals the vegetable's surprising origins: It emerged 9 million years ago as a result of an unusual hybridization between an ancestor of the tomato and an ancient South American plant. This revelation rewrites the evolutionary history of one of the world's most widely consumed foods and also explains how a simple tuber became a mainstay of the global diet. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences conducted the most extensive genomic analysis to date on the domesticated potato. They studied cultivated varieties along with 44 wild species, conducting unprecedented genetic sequencing. The results revealed a stable mixture of genetic material between Solanum tuberosum (the traditional potato) and an ancestor of Solanum lycopersicum (the tomato). The finding suggests that potatoes as we know them today arose from a process of hybridization between an ancient tomato plant and other Solanum -related species from the Etuberosum family that, until then, did not produce tubers. The results have been published in the journal Cell. Both the potato and the tomato share a common ancestor that lived about 13 million years ago. Four million years later, their descendants successfully interbred. From this union emerged a new plant with the ability to form tubers: subway structures that store energy in the form of carbohydrates and allow reproduction without the need for seeds or pollination. This biological innovation facilitated the expansion of the first potatoes into regions with diverse climates, from warm to cold environments. The study also identified revealing genetic details. The SP6A gene, considered the 'switch' that determines whether a plant will develop tubers, comes from the tomato. On the other hand, the IT1 gene, which regulates the growth of the subway stems that form the edible tuber, comes from plants of the Etuberosum family, native to South America. By considering the chronology of the hybridization and the geolocation of the species involved, the researchers proposed a hypothesis about the origin of the potato. During the Miocene, between 10 and 6 million years ago, the abrupt geological uplift of the Andes, driven by the collision of two tectonic plates, generated new cold climatic regions. Scientists believe this geological change forced plants to adapt to survive and expand, with two of them joining together to form Solanum tuberosum , which millions of years later would end up accompanying your hamburger in the form of French fries. This story originally appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.
Sustainability Times
6 days ago
- Science
- Sustainability Times
Scientists Shocked to Discover Potato and Tomato Are "9-Million-Year-Old Lovers," Sparking Outrage Over What This Means for Our Food System
IN A NUTSHELL 🥔 The modern potato originated from a natural hybridization event between tomato plants and a species called Etuberosum around 9 million years ago. and a species called around 9 million years ago. 🧬 Researchers analyzed genetic data, revealing that all potato species have a balanced mix of genetic material from both Etuberosum and tomatoes. and tomatoes. ⛰️ The development of tubers coincided with the uplift of the Andes mountains , allowing potatoes to adapt to new ecological environments. , allowing potatoes to adapt to new ecological environments. 🌍 The study offers insights into modern agriculture, emphasizing the importance of genetic diversity and crop resilience in the face of climate change. The humble potato, a staple in diets worldwide, has long been shrouded in mystery concerning its origins. Despite its ubiquitous presence, the genetic journey of the potato has remained elusive. Recent research by an international team of scientists has finally unearthed its ancient roots, revealing a fascinating tale of natural hybridization. This discovery not only sheds light on the potato's past but also offers insights into the broader mechanisms of plant evolution and adaptation. The Ancient Hybridization Event The modern-day potato owes its existence to an ancient interbreeding event that occurred approximately 9 million years ago. This natural cross-breeding transpired between tomato plants and a potato-like species known as Etuberosum, native to South America. The result was a novel plant capable of producing tubers, a characteristic absent in its Etuberosum ancestors. This event marked the beginning of an evolutionary journey that would eventually lead to the diverse varieties of potatoes we enjoy today. Sanwen Huang from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences highlighted the significance of this discovery. 'We've finally solved the mystery of where potatoes came from,' he remarked, emphasizing the evolutionary implications of such hybridization events. The research involved analyzing an extensive collection of genetic data, including 450 genomes from cultivated potatoes and 56 from wild species. This comprehensive approach provided robust evidence of the potato's hybrid origins. Dairy Methane Miracle: These Digesters Deliver 80% Emissions Drop and Turn Manure Into Massive Renewable Energy Wins Deciphering the Genetic Puzzle The genetic analysis revealed that every potato species carries a balanced mix of genetic material from both Etuberosum and tomato plants. Wild potatoes are notoriously difficult to sample, making this dataset the most comprehensive collection of wild potato genomic data ever analyzed, 'Japan Traps the Impossible': Scientists Develop Breakthrough Method to Extract Ammonia From Air and Water With Unmatched Precision noted Zhiyang Zhang from the Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen. This breakthrough resolved the long-standing puzzle of how modern potatoes developed their tuber-forming capability. Despite being distinct species, Etuberosum and tomatoes shared a common ancestor approximately 14 million years ago. Their ability to interbreed, despite diverging for about 5 million years, underscores the dynamic nature of plant evolution. The study pinpointed specific genes responsible for tuber formation, with the SP6A gene originating from the tomato parent and the IT1 gene from Etuberosum. These genes were crucial in enabling the development of tubers, a key trait for survival and proliferation. 'They Cloned a Yak in the Himalayas!': Chinese Scientists Defy Nature with First-Ever Livestock Copy at 12,000 Feet The Role of the Andes Uplift The emergence of tubers in early potatoes coincided with significant geological events, notably the rapid uplift of the Andes mountains. This period of intense tectonic activity created a myriad of new ecological niches, from grasslands to alpine meadows. The tuber's development provided potatoes with a substantial evolutionary advantage, allowing them to thrive in these diverse and challenging environments. The ability to store nutrients underground enabled potatoes to endure harsh weather conditions and quickly adapt to shifting ecological landscapes. As a result, potatoes spread rapidly across Central and South America, diversifying into the myriad forms we see today. This adaptability was further enhanced by the tuber's capability to facilitate asexual reproduction, allowing potato plants to proliferate without relying on seeds or pollination. The Impact on Modern Agriculture The discovery of the potato's ancient origins and its evolutionary journey offers valuable insights into modern agricultural practices. Understanding the genetic mechanisms that facilitated the potato's adaptation to diverse environments can inform breeding programs aimed at enhancing crop resilience and yield. As climate change continues to pose challenges to global food security, such knowledge becomes increasingly vital. Moreover, the study underscores the importance of preserving genetic diversity within crop species. The rich variety of potatoes we enjoy today is a testament to the evolutionary processes that have shaped them over millions of years. Preserving this diversity is crucial for maintaining the adaptability and resilience of crops in the face of environmental changes. As the curtain lifts on the potato's enigmatic past, we are left pondering the broader implications of its evolutionary tale. How might the insights gained from this research influence our approaches to agriculture and biodiversity conservation in the future? This article is based on verified sources and supported by editorial technologies. Did you like it? 4.6/5 (21)
Yahoo
01-08-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Remarkable News in Potatoes
The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. The annals of evolutionary history are full of ill-fated unions. Many plants and animals can and do sometimes reproduce outside of their own species, but their offspring—if they come to be at all—may incur serious costs. Mules and hinnies, for instance, are almost always sterile; so, too, are crosses between the two main subspecies of cultivated rice. When lions and tigers mate in zoos, their liger cubs have suffered heart failure and other health problems (and the males seem uniformly infertile). For decades, evolutionary biologists pointed to such examples to cast hybridization as hapless—'rare, very unsuccessful, and not an important evolutionary force,' Sandra Knapp, a plant taxonomist at the Natural History Museum in London, told me. But recently, researchers have begun to revise that dour view. With the right blend of genetic material, hybrids can sometimes be fertile and spawn species of their own; they can acquire new abilities that help them succeed in ways their parents never could. Which, as Knapp and her colleagues have found in a new study, appears to be the case for the world's third-most important staple crop: The 8-to-9-million-year-old lineage that begat the modern potato may have arisen from a chance encounter between a flowering plant from a group called Etuberosum and … an ancient tomato. Tomatoes, in other words, can now justifiably be described as the mother of potatoes. The plant experts I interviewed about the finding almost uniformly described it as remarkable, and not only because dipping fries into ketchup just got a little more mind-bending. Potatoes represent more than the product of an improbable union; they mark a radical feat of evolution. Neither of the first potato's parents could form the underground nutrient-storage organs we call tubers and eat in the form of sweet potatoes, yams, and potatoes. And yet, the potato predecessor that they produced could. Tubers allowed the proto-potato plant to flourish in environments where tomatoes and Etuberosum could not, and to branch out into more than 100 species that are still around today, including the cultivated potato. It's as if a liger weren't just fertile but also grew a brand-new organ that enabled it to thrive on a vegan diet. Scientists have spent decades puzzling over potatoes' origin story, in large part because the plants' genetics are a bit of a mess, Ek Han Tan, a plant geneticist at the University of Maine who wasn't involved in the study, told me. Researchers have struggled to piece together the relationships among the 100-plus potato species found in the wild; they cannot even agree on exactly how many exist. And when they have tried to orient the potato in its larger family, the nightshades—which includes tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and Etuberosum—they have found mixed clues. Some evidence has seemed to point to the potato being a tomato derivative: Large stretches of their genomes resemble each other, and the two crops are similar enough that they can be grafted together into a plant that produces both foods. But other patches of the potato genome look more similar to that of Etuberosum, which bears flowers and underground stems that are far more potato-esque than anything that the tomato sports. 'We couldn't resolve the contradiction for a long time,' Zhiyang Zhang, a biologist at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and one of the paper's lead authors, told me. [Read: Tomato + potato = TomTato] To settle the potato paradox, Zhang and his colleagues amassed more than 120 genomes from dozens of species spanning the potato, tomato, and Etuberosum groups and tried to piece together a narrative. One explanation for all of the shared genes, for instance, might have been that the potato lineage originally split off from the tomato one, then crossbred with Etuberosum later on. If that were the case, the genomes of more ancient potato species would be expected to look more tomato-like, and more modern ones should carry more of Etuberosum's genetic baggage. Instead, the researchers found that all of the potato genomes they sequenced had about the same tomato-Etuberosum split. That points to a possibility that potato researchers hadn't really considered before, Helen Tai, a plant geneticist with the Canadian government's agricultural department, told me. The entire potato lineage must have sprung from the same ancient source: a fusion between tomato and Etuberosum that persists, in a multitude of forms, into the modern day. The key to that success seems to have been the hybrid's newfound ability to tuberize, a feat that neither of its parents managed, because each lacked the necessary genetic accoutrement. Only the proto-potato had the proper combination: underground stems from Etuberosum that provided a structural scaffold for the tubers, and a genomic switch from the tomato that told the tubers to grow there. Many hybrids struggle to sexually reproduce, but the proto-potato one didn't have to: The plant's underground storage organs (that is, the potatoes) allowed it to propagate asexually. (Potatoes can still be cloned today—just bury bits of one in the ground—but sometime in the past 8 to 9 million years, the plants gained the ability to reproduce sexually, too, a shift that scientists are still puzzling through.) Ancient tomatoes and Etuberosum were native to different stretches of the western coast of South America. But the proto-potato was able to colonize colder, higher, drier environments, allowing it to spread as far north as Arizona and west, out to the coasts of Argentina, Uruguay, and parts of Brazil. 'That's what a tuber does for you—it allows you to survive better in stressful conditions,' C. Robin Buell, a plant-genomics expert at the University of Georgia who wasn't involved in the study, told me. Hybridization in nature still, more often than not, ends in tragedy—'offspring that are sterile, inviable, maladapted, or mixed up in some negative way,' Robin Hopkins, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard who wasn't involved in the research, told me. But through the sheer power of mixing genes into new combinations, the risky gamble of interspecies pairings has also sometimes majorly paid off. Hybridization among East African cichlids seems to have triggered an explosion in the diversity of certain genes important for eyesight, helping the animals navigate waters of varying murkiness and depth. Certain frogs have been documented soliciting mates outside of their own species to up the chances that their offspring will survive periods of drought. Our own ancestors mingled with Denisovans and Neanderthals, equipping modern humans with traits that may have helped us adapt to new environments. Today, farmers frequently breed different species of crops together to boost yield or hardiness against extreme weather and disease. The potato's innovations, though, are still exceptional. Rather than just collapsing its parents' various traits together, this ancient hybrid struck out on its own evolutionary path. [Read: Why these frogs make 'the grossest blunder in sexual preference'] Although that proto-potato is long gone, understanding its origins could still keep fries and hashbrowns on modern tables. Cultivated potatoes are prone to disease, and—thanks to their four-copy genomes—a pain to breed and genetically manipulate. Some scientists are trying to address those issues by developing a two-copy-genome potato. But the past could offer another avenue toward sustainable spuds, Yiyuan Ding, a biologist at Huazhong Agricultural University and one of the paper's lead authors, told me. Perhaps, with some genetic help from Etuberosum, scientists might someday coax tomato plants into producing edible underground tubers of their own. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Washington Post
31-07-2025
- Science
- Washington Post
Where did the potato come from? Tomatoes, 9 million years ago, apparently.
They're one of the world's most important food crops and delicious roasted, mashed or fried, but the exact genetic origins of the humble potato have long been something of a mystery to scientists. Now, researchers say the modern-day potato evolved from hybridization of the ancestors of tomato plants and another potato-like plant, known as etuberosum, in South America up to 9 million years ago. The hybridization created the petota lineage — which includes the cultivated potato seen in supermarkets around the world, as well as 107 wild potato species. Sandra Knapp, a plant taxonomist at the Natural History Museum in London and an author of the study, said in an interview Thursday that while scientists had known potatoes, tomatoes and etuberosum were closely related, the exact relationship had been unclear as 'different parts of the genome told us different stories.' The new research, published Thursday in the journal Cell Press, was carried out by a team of scientists in China, the United States and United Kingdom who focused on untangling this relationship. Scientists conducted intricate analysis of 128 genomes and found that 'all members of Petota exhibit a stable mixed genomic ancestry, derived from Etuberosum and Tomato lineages.' Researchers said they believe tomato and etuberosum share a common ancestor but diverged around 14 million years ago, before hybridization between them resulted in the origin of petota around 8 to 9 million years ago. The combination of two distinct genes in this 'hybrid speciation' event led to a key innovation — the development of tubers in petota. Tubers, the edible part of the potato, allow the plant to reproduce without seeds or pollination as well as storing water and carbohydrates, meaning petota was able to thrive in different geographic niches and diversify into a large number of species, scientists added. Knapp said while hybridization in plants is nothing new, the resulting plants are often sterile and it had previously been thought of as an 'evolutionary dead-end.' The latest research showed that, in fact, 'hybridization is a really potent force in evolution,' she added. Cultivated potatoes (Solanum tuberosum), along with maize, rice and wheat make up around 80 percent of human calorie intake, the researchers said, and are renowned for being cheap, versatile and packed with carbohydrates. However, wild potatoes are difficult to sample, and the study is the 'most comprehensive collection of wild potato genomic data ever analyzed,' lead co-author Zhiyang Zhang, a genomics expert from the Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, said in a statement. Scientists detailed how this hybridization event led to the creation of tubers through genes known as SP6A and IT1, derived from tomato and etuberosum respectively. The changes came at the same time as the Andes Mountains emerged between 6 and 10 million years ago, researchers said. Having a tuber to store nutrients allowed potatoes to survive harsh weather and spread throughout cold climates in the Andes and central Mexico. While both petota and etuberosum have underground resprouting organs which allow them to reproduce without seeds, petota became more widespread than tomato or etuerosum species, as it was able to grow in areas such as grasslands, Alpine meadows and seasonally dry rainforests, the researchers added. Now, scientists want to understand the effect of tuber-related genes on plants and how the exact 'reshuffling' of genes in this case led to tuber formation, Knapp said, adding that it also raises the prospect of creating plants that can grow food faster, are more disease resistant and environmentally friendly. Studying the evolution of the potato also allows scientists to think about how the traits of wild species could be used on cultivated plants to boost biodiversity and mitigate the environmental impacts of agriculture, she said. Zhang, meanwhile, said in an interview that he hoped the findings could help 'generate a new species that maybe have a harvested fruit on the ground and a tuber in the ground.' One of his fellow researchers has joked that such a new species could be called 'tomtatoes.' Knapp suggested that the main benefit of the findings would be to build 'better potatoes instead of building cool weird things.' 'If we're going to optimize crops, what we want to do is optimize the thing we want from them and usually when you get something that does two things, those two things are not as good as the one that does the one thing better,' she said.
New York Times
31-07-2025
- Science
- New York Times
What's a Potato? A Nine-Million-Year-Old Tomato.
As a foodstuff, the potato can be baked, boiled, mashed, smashed, hashed, roasted, scalloped, fried and more. As a crop, it is among the world's most important, with more than 350 million tons produced annually. Its efficiency — it requires less land than wheat or rice — and its ability to grow in a variety of environments has made it essential to global food security. For all that, the plant's origins have remained obscure. Everybody eats potatoes, it seems, but nobody can say where they came from. Now scientists can, and the answer is: tomatoes. According to a study published on Thursday, potatoes may have arisen nine million years ago through the combining of genetic material from Etuberosum, a group of potato-like plants from South America, and wild tomato plants. According to the study, this hybridization event led to the origin of the potato plant's distinctive feature, the tuber, an underground structure that stores nutrients and, as humans eventually discovered, is edible. 'A potato is the child of tomato and Etuberosum,' said Zhiyang Zhang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the lead author of the study, which was published in the journal Cell. 'We did this analysis and we found, 'Oh, he's a child of two plants.'' Scientists have long noted that, aboveground, modern potato plants closely resemble the subgroup of South American species called Etuberosum. But Etuberosum plants do not bear tubers. And genetically, potatoes appear to be more closely related to tomatoes; both fall under the shared genus Solanum. This was confounding: Why did potatoes resemble one plant but share kinship with another? To solve this enigma, a team of international scientists analyzed 128 genomes from the three sister lineages (tomatoes, Etuberosum, and potato plants and their wild relatives), plus three eggplant species as an outside group. The researchers found that the modern spud had a mixed ancestry, which arose from a hybrid tomato and Etuberosum lineages eight million to nine million years ago and led to the origin of tubers. This hybridization may have enabled subsequent potato species — there are more than 100 today — to diversify and expand their range across the high Andes, where colder climates prevailed. 'It was a very well-done study,' said Esther van der Knaap, a plant geneticist at University of Georgia who was not involved in the research. 'It provides a model of how this could happen in many other cases.' At first, the combination of two different plants may not have yielded anything noteworthy. 'There's some ancient mixing of genomes, and there's some miserable plants coming out of that,' Dr. van der Knaap said. But over time — tens of thousands to perhaps millions of years — natural selection led to 'a whole new species complex,' she said. The study indicates that the genes responsible for tuber formation were a combination of the genetic material from each evolutionary parent. The gene that tells the plant when to start making tubers, called SP6A, originated with the tomato, whereas the gene that controls growth of the underground stems that develop into tubers, known as IT1, came from Etuberosum. Pingxian Zhang, another lead author from the Chinese Academy for Agricultural Sciences, expressed excitement at the possibilities for future studies. Only a handful of potato species are cultivated, and improving on them has posed challenges: As a crop, they are typically propagated through cloning, which limits their genetic variety and makes them more vulnerable to diseases. Engineering potatoes with genetic material from tomatoes could be a promising way forward, Dr. Zhang said. In the last few years, researchers have been able to analyze genomes at a much larger scale than before and infer previously opaque evolutionary connections. These studies have 'revolutionized our understanding of what might have occurred in the past,' said Leonie Moyle, an evolutionary biologist at Indiana University, Bloomington, who was not involved in the new research. Regarding the new results, she said, 'if the inferences are correct, they could be exciting.' Richard Veilleux, a horticulturist at Virginia Tech who has traced the origins of the cultivated potato back thousands of years, described the study as 'a creative use of genomics.' 'One of the difficulties with evolutionary studies, of course, is that the species that existed eight million years ago don't exist anymore,' he said. 'Now we know where potatoes came from a little bit better than we did before.'
