Overview

• Researchers sequenced more than 450 cultivated potato genomes and over 50 wild species to reconstruct the plant’s deep evolutionary history.
• Their genetic data show Solanum tuberosum emerged roughly nine million years ago from a natural cross between an ancestral tomato lineage and a tuberless Etuberosum species in the rising Andes.
• The study traces the tomato-derived SP6A gene as the tuber “switch” and the Etuberosum-derived IT1 gene as a regulator of underground stem growth.
• The rapid uplift of the Andes during the Miocene created new cold environments that fostered plant adaptation and the hybrid speciation event leading to modern potatoes.
• Building on these findings, researchers are now using tomato genes to develop potato varieties with enhanced resilience for global food security.