That’s it. This is the news. Genome biologist Sanwen Huang Know a thing or two about potatoes. But his latest potato breakthrough is probably his most shocking yet: potatoes drop from tomatoes.
exist cell Huang’s team published a paper today, reporting that modern potatoes may have emerged about 9 million years ago, when the tomato plant married Etuberosum, a pepper-like species similar to chili peppers. The origins of modern potatoes have plagued scientists for years, but the new results eventually shut down plant genomicists – although overturning a long-standing belief that potatoes descended entirely from etuberosum.
“Yes, we reveal that tomatoes are the mother of potatoes,” Huang, professor of agricultural genomics at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, confirmed to Gizmodo.
Etuberosum is a wild potato that looks a lot like the potato you might find on grocery shelves. But it lacks the key elements of potato anatomy: tubers – the extended structure of stems or roots, allowing potatoes and their relatives to store nutrients and reproduce. However, confusingly, genomic analysis shows that potatoes have a lot in common with tomatoes.
This suggests to scientists that the trio-protein, tomatoes and emenberosum are related, but the link is not clear. Until that’s it, Huang’s team had a crazy idea and decided to compete with it. What if tomatoes and potatoes are really family, not just linked to the random quirks of nature?
To test their hypothesis, Huang and colleagues analyzed 450 genomes from cultivated potatoes and 56 other wild potatoes and built more than 3,000 genealogies to illustrate the genetic relationship between modern potatoes, tomatoes and Etuberosum. They found that 50.66% of these genealogies listed tomatoes as sisters of Petota, a group of wild potatoes with tubers. Next, they conducted extensive statistical analysis to compare the tree to the genetic data. The team realized that the most notable situation was that potatoes were hybrids of tomatoes and emenberosum, and that tomatoes contributed more to the genetic makeup of potatoes.
Most surprisingly, the key tuber-forming gene for potatoes is a combination of genetic material received from each parent, although neither tomato nor emenberosum has tubers. Specifically, tomatoes provide potatoes with a gene that tells plants to make tubers, while etuberosum passes through a gene that helps control tubers’ growth.
Huang added that this unique genetic pathway could lead to future agricultural innovations for breeding potatoes that do not develop harmful mutations. But this is still in progress, and potato experts hope to explore this genetic relationship in more detail.
Huang said: “Next time you eat potatoes, thank the tomatoes – maybe the potato’s mother.” “DNA proves that they are family!”
