The humble contemporary potatoes, first domesticated about 10,000 years ago, began its activities in the Andes Mountains until it becomes the main harvest on which the world depends. But since the plants do not retain a fossil record, its tribe essentially remained a mystery.
Now, a team of evolutionary biologists and genome scientists traced this starch of origin to face millions of years ago, associated with an unlikely relative of plants: tomato.
Researchers analyzed the genomes of 450 cultivated and wild potato species, and genes revealed that the ancient ancestor of wild tomato plants is naturally bred with potato-like plant, known as the Etuberosum 9 million years, as both plants were originally divorced from the common ancestral plants about 14 million years ago Ancestral plants about 14 million years ago, as both plants were divorced from common ancestral plants about 14 million years ago, as both plants were originally divorced from common ancestral plants about 14 million years ago, as both plants were originally divorced from common ancestral plants, about 14 million years ago.
Although neither tomatoes nor the Etubers’ had the opportunity to grow tubers – dilated, edible plant, such as potatoes, yolks and containers growing underground, the formed hybrid plant made. Tubers developed as an innovative way to keep nutrients underground for potato factory, as the Andes climate and the environment became colder – and it was grown, causing nutritional basis for humans. There are now more than 100 wild potato species that also grow tubers, although not all are edible because some contain toxins.
“As the tuber develops, potatoes have a huge advantage in a harsh environment, promoting new species and contributing to the rich variety of potatoes we see and rely today,” says co -author Sanwen Huang, China Academy Academy, Institute of Agricultural Science, Institute of Agriculture. “We finally solved the secret of where the potatoes came from.”
Scientists also decorated which genes were supplied by each plant to create tubers first. Understanding how potatoes have emerged and evolved could eventually help scientists breed more resistant potatoes resistant to disease and change in climatic conditions.
By delving into the endurance of the SPUD
People harvest potatoes near celendÃn, Peru. – Sandra Knapp
Potatoes, tomatoes and etc. are owned by the Solanum tribes, which belong to about 1,500 species and are the largest genus of the family of flowering plants. At first glance, the potato plants look almost identical to the Etuberosum, which initially encouraged scientists to believe that both were sisters from a common ancestor, said the research co -author Jianquan Liu, a professor at the Lanzhou University Gans, China.
Etuberosuma contains only three species, and the plants contain flowers and leaves similar to potato plants, they do not produce tubers.
“Etuberosums are a special thing,” CNN said dr. Sandy Knapp, co -author and research botanist at the London Museum of Natural History. “These are things you probably never see unless you go to Juan Fernandes Islands, the Robinson Crusoe Islands in the middle of the Pacific or if you were in the Tropical Forest of the Temple.”
However, when a tribe of potatoes, tomatoes and ethuberms, a unexpected wrinkle, which seems to indicate that the potatoes are more related to tomatoes at the genetic level, Knapp said.
The team used philogenetic analyzes-profes, similar to determining the relationship between people with parents and daughter or sisters and sisters at the genetic level to determine the relationship between different plants, Liu said.
Analysis showed contradictions: potatoes can be a Utuberosum or tomato sister, according to different genetic markers, Liu said.
14 million old tomatoes and etuberic ancestors and plants that differ from it are no longer and “geological time is lost in the fog,” Knapp said. Instead, researchers were looking for genetic markers to determine their origin.
“What we use is a signal that comes from the past, which is still in the plants we have today, to try to reconstruct the past,” Knapp said.
To track this signal over time, the researchers formed a genetic potato database, including watching museum copies and even data from rare wild potatoes that are difficult to find, some of which take place in only one valley in Andes, said Knapp.
“Wild potatoes are very difficult to take, so this data set is the most detailed collection of wild potato genomic data ever analyzed,” says Zhiyang Zhang, a researcher at the School of Agricultural Genomics, said in a researcher at the Institute of Genomics at the SHENGEN.
A genetic road map written by accident
Tomatoes contributed to the gene that meant tuber growth in the first potato plants. – Robert Alexander/Getty Images
The study revealed that the first potatoes and all subsequent potato species included a combination of genetic substances derived from eturators and tomatoes.
Climatic or geological changes were probably caused by ancient ethuber and tomato ancestor in the same place, Liu said.
Given that both species are pollinated by bees, the expected scenario is that bee pollen between two plants and led to the creation of a potato, said Amy Kharkowski, Dean of Coloradic University College of Agricultural Sciences. Kharkowski did not participate in new research.
The tomato side supplied the “main switch” sp6a gene, which told the potato plant to start producing tubers, while the IT1 gene on the Etuberosum side controlled the growth of the underground stems that formed starch tubers, said Liu. If no gene was missing or working together, the potatoes would never have formed tubers, the researchers say.
“One of the hybridization things about the genes are mixing,” Knapp said. “It is like stacking the deck of the cards again, and the different cards are rising in different combinations. And fortunately, this particular hybridization event has raised two genes that created the ability to hang, which is a accident event.”
The evolution of tuber potatoes coincided with the rapid growth of the Andes Mountains due to the interaction of tectonic plates that created a huge spine on the west side of South America, Knapp said. The Andes are a complex mountain chain with many valleys and many ecosystems.
Modern tomatoes, such as dry, hot environment, and Etuberosums choose a temperate space. However, the ancestor of the potato plant has evolved into a prosperity in dry, cold, high height habitats, which arose through the Andes, and the tuber enables his final survival, Knapp said. Potatoes could reproduce without requiring seeds or pollination. The growth of new tubers has led to new plants and may have flourished in various environments.
Create a solid potato for an obscure future
Many different varieties of potatoes are endemic Peru. – Sandra Knapp
The potatoes we consume today are currently the third most important staple crop in the world, and with wheat, rice and corn is responsible for 80% of people’s calorie intake, according to the study.
Understanding of potato origin history could be the key to more innovation in the breeding of future potatoes; By regulating the main tomato genes, this can lead to fast varieties of potatoes, which are reproduced by seeds experiment with Huang and its team of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Modern crops face pressure from environmental changes, climate crises and new pests and diseases, Knapp said.
Seed potatoes are interested as they can be genetically diverse and resistant to disease and other agricultural risk, Knapp said. Vegetatively multiplying potatoes – cutting the potato into pieces and planting them to create a crop, are genetically identical potatoes that can be destroyed if a new disease comes.
She added that it could be very important to study wild species that have emerged before and evolved in response to such challenges can also be very important.
The Kharkowski Laboratory is interested in how wild potatoes resist the disease and why some plant pests and diseases only affect potatoes or tomatoes.
“In addition to helping us understand the evolution of potatoes and the development of potato tubers, methods (in this study) can also help researchers learn about other traits such as disease and insect resistance, nutrition, tolerance to drought and many other important plant features in potatoes and tomatoes.”
Potatoes remain important in the crop in the arrangements or places with short summer and high height – in places where other main plants do not grow, she said.
The results also show the potatoes differently: the result of the collision between two very different individuals, said the co -author of the study dr. Tina Särkinen, Nightshade expert from the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh.
“It’s really quite romantic,” she said. “The origin of many of our species is not a simple story, and it is very interesting that we can now discover these tangled, complex origins due to a wealth of genomic data.”
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