Potatoes Developed From Tomatoes, Research Reveals

That’s it. That’s the information. Genome biologist Sanwen Huang knows a thing or two about potatoes. However his newest potato breakthrough could also be his most surprising but: potatoes are descended from tomatoes.

In a Cell paper printed immediately, Huang’s group studies that the fashionable potato seemingly emerged about 9 million years in the past, when tomato crops married the etuberosum, a potato-like species frequent to Chile. The origin of the fashionable potato has puzzled scientists for years, however the brand new outcomes lastly give plant genomists closure—whereas overturning a long-held perception that potatoes have been solely descended from etuberosum.

“Sure, we revealed that the tomato is the mom of the potato,” Huang, a professor of agricultural genomics on the Chinese language Academy of Agricultural Sciences, confirmed to Gizmodo. 

Etuberosum, a kind of untamed potato, appears to be like rather a lot just like the potato you may discover on a grocery shelf. But it surely lacks a key ingredient of potato anatomy: the tuber—an prolonged construction of the stem or root that allows potatoes and their family to retailer vitamins and reproduce. Confusingly, nevertheless, genomic analyses advised potatoes had a lot in frequent with tomatoes, Huang defined.

This hinted to scientists that the trio—potatoes, tomatoes, and etuberosum—have been associated, however the hyperlink wasn’t precisely clear. Till, that’s, Huang’s group had a wild thought and determined to run with it. What if tomatoes and potatoes actually have been household and never simply linked by some random quirk of nature? 

To check their speculation, Huang and colleagues analyzed 450 genomes from cultivated potatoes and 56 different species of untamed potatoes, establishing over 3,000 household bushes as an instance the genetic relationship between the fashionable potato, tomatoes, and the etuberosum. They discovered that fifty.66% of those household bushes listed tomatoes as a sister to petota, the group of untamed potatoes with tubers. Subsequent, they ran an intensive statistical evaluation to check the tree in opposition to genetic knowledge. The group realized that essentially the most salient state of affairs is that the potato is a hybrid of tomatoes and etuberosum, with the tomato contributing considerably extra to the potato’s genetic make-up.

Most stunning of all was that the potato’s key tuber-forming genes emerged as a mixture of genetic materials it obtained from every mother or father—even though neither tomato nor etuberosum has tubers. Particularly, tomatoes gave potatoes the gene that tells the plant to make tubers, whereas etuberosum handed on a gene that helps management the expansion of tubers.

This distinctive genetic pathway might result in future agricultural improvements for breeding potatoes that don’t develop dangerous mutations, Huang added. However that’s nonetheless within the works, and the potato knowledgeable hopes to discover this genetic relationship in additional element.

“Subsequent time you eat potatoes, thank a tomato—the traditional, maybe, mom of the potato,” Huang mentioned. “DNA proves they’re household!”