by The modest modern potato, which was first domesticated about 10,000 years ago, began in the Andes before becoming an important harvest. The world depends on it. But because plants in the fossil stock do not keep well, their lineage has largely remained a mystery.
Now a team of evolutionary biologists and genomic scientists has followed the origins of this strength -wide staple food for a random encounter millions of years ago with an unlikely plant: the tomato.
The researchers analyzed 450 genomes of cultivated and wild potato species, and the genes showed that an old potato plant was of course bred with a potato-like plant called etuberosum 9 million years ago, since both plants had reduced about 14 million years ago about 14 million years ago.
While neither tomatoes nor etuberosums had the ability to grow tubers – the enlarged, edible part of domesticated plants such as potatoes, yams and taros that grow underground did the resulting hybrid plant. Benefit developed as an innovative way for the potato plant to store nutrients underground, since the climate and the environment became colder – and once cultivated, led to a main support for humans. There are now more than 100 species of wild potatoes that also grow tubers, although not all are edible because some toxins contain.
“Evolving A Tuber Gave Potatoes A Huge Advantage in Harsh Environments, fueling to Explosion of New Species and Contributing to the Rich diversity of Potatoes We See and Rely on Today,” Study Coauthor Sanwen Huang, President of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Sciences and a Professor at the Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Said in a statement. “We finally solved the secret of where potatoes came from.”
The scientists have also decoded which genes were delivered from each system to create tubers at all. Ultimately, understanding of how potatoes were created and developed can ultimately help scientists to breed more resistant potatoes that are resistant to diseases and change the climate conditions.
Dig into the permanent secret of the spud
People harvest potatoes near Celendín, Peru. – Sandra Knapp
Potatoes, tomatoes and etuberosums are all part of the genus Solanum, which includes around 1,500 species and is the greatest genus in the nightshade family of flowering plants. At first glance, potato plants look almost identical to etuberosum, which initially prompted the scientists that the two sisters came from a joint ancestor, said Co author Jianquan Liu, professor at the College of Ecology at Lanzhou University in Gansu, China.
Etuberosums only include three species, and while the plants have flowers and leaves that resemble those of potato plants, they do not produce tubers.
“Etuberosums are a special thing,” said Dr. Sandy Knapp, co -author and research botanist in the Natural History Museum in London, opposite CNN. “They are things that they would probably never see if they didn’t go to the Juan Fernandes Islands, the Robinson Crusoe Islands in the middle of the Pacific or were in the Chile temple rainforest.”
However, the selection of the line of potatoes, tomatoes and etuberosums showed an unexpected wrinkle that indicates that potatoes were closer with tomatoes on a genetic level, said Knapp.
The team used phylogenetic analyzes of a process that resembles people in humans a relationship between the parents’ daughter or sister sister at a genetic level-to determine relationships between the different plants, said Liu.
The analysis showed a contradiction: potatoes could be a sister for etuberosum or tomatoes depending on various genetic markers, said Liu.
The 14 million year old ancestor of tomatoes and etuberosums as well as the plants that deviate from it no longer exist and “are lost in the fog of geological time,” said Knapp. Instead, the researchers searched for genetic markers within the plants to determine their origin.
“What we use is a signal that comes from the past that is still in the plants we have today, to reconstruct the past,” said Knapp.
In order to pursue this signal through time, the researchers have put together a genetic database for potatoes, including looking at museum samples and even retrieving data from rare wild potatoes that are difficult to find, some of which occur in the Andes in just one valley.
“Wild potatoes are very difficult to try, so this data record represents the most comprehensive collection of wild potato genome data that has ever been analyzed,” said Co -author Zhiyang Zhang, researcher of the Agricultural Genomics Institute in Shenzhen at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
A genetic street map written by chance
Tomatoes contributed a gene that signaled the tuber growth in the first potato plants. – Robert Alexander/Getty Images
Research showed that the first potato and each subsequent potato species contained a combination of genetic material that comes from etuberosum and tomatoes.
Climatic or geological changes probably caused an old etuberosum and a tomato ancestor in the same place, said Liu.
In view of the fact that both types are beehive, the probable scenario is that a bee moved between the two plants and led to the creation of the potato, said Amy Kharkowski, Research Associate Dean of College of Agricultural Sciences from Colorado State University. Kharkowski was not involved in the new research.
The tomato side provided a “master -switch” -sp6a -gengen, which asked the potato plant to make tubers, while an IT1 gene from the etuberosum side controlled the growth of the underground stems, which formed the starchy tubers, said Liu. If one of a gene was missing or hadn’t worked in the concert, potatoes would never have formed tubers, according to the researchers.
“One of the things that happens in hybridization is that genes are messed up,” said Knapp. “It is like mixing a card game again, and different cards appear in different combinations. And luckily for this special hybridization event, two types of genes came together, which is the ability to tuberize tuberization and this is a random event.”
The development of bulbous potatoes fell together with a time when the Andes mountains rose quickly due to the interactions between tectonic plates, which was created by a huge spine on the west side of South America. The Andes are a complex mountain range with numerous valleys and a number of ecosystems.
Modern tomatoes such as dry, hot environments, while etuberosums prefer a moderate room. But the ancestor of the potato plant developed into the dry, cold habitats at great altitude that were created over the Andes, the tuber enabled its ultimate survival, said Knapp. Potatoes could multiply without the need for seeds or pollination. The growth of new tubers led to new plants and were able to thrive in various surroundings.
Creation of a robust potato for an uncertain future
Many different types of potatoes are endemic for Peru. – Sandra Knapp
The cultivated potato that we consume today is currently the third most important staple food -harvesting the world and with wheat, rice and corn responsible for 80% of the caloric admission of human calories.
Understanding the original history of the potato could be the key to breed more innovation in future potatoes. The reintroduction of important tomato genes could lead to fast potatoes that are reproduced by seeds, which Huang and his team experiment by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Modern plants are exposed to environmental change, the climate crisis as well as new pests and diseases, said Knapp.
Sama potatoes are of interest because they may be genetically diverse and resistant to diseases and other agricultural risks, said Knapp. Vegetative reproducing potatoes – cutting a potato into pieces and plants to create a harvest – leads to genetically identical potatoes that can be extinguished when a new illness occurs.
The examination of wild species that have developed and developed in response to such challenges against such challenges could also be of crucial importance, she added.
The Charkowski laboratory is interested in how wild potatoes resist the disease and why some plant pests and diseases only influence potatoes or tomatoes.
“The methods (in this study) can not only understand the potato development and the development of potato bulbs, but also help to know other characteristics such as diseases and insect resistance, nutrition, dry tolerance and many other important plant features in potato and tomatoes,” said Charmowski.
Potatoes remain an important harvest in dry regions or areas with short summer and high heights – places where other important cultures do not grow, she said.
The results also show potatoes in a different light: the result of a random encounter between two very different people, said Co author Dr. Tiina Särkinen, an expert for nightshade at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
“It’s actually pretty romantic,” she said. “The origin of many of our species is not an easy story, and it is very exciting that we can now discover these confused, complex origins thanks to the wealth of genomic data.”
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