[Sca-cooks] New Clues to Origin of Potatoes

[Sharon Gordon]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "ARS News Service" <NewsService at ars.usda.gov>
To: "ARS News subscriber" <gordonse at one.net>
Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 8:17 AM
Subject: New Clues to Origin of Potatoes


> STORY LEAD:
> Unraveling the Mystery of Modern Potatoes' Origins
> ___________________________________________
>
> ARS News Service
> Agricultural Research Service, USDA
> Erin Peabody, (301) 504-1624, ekpeabody at ars.usda.gov
> March 18, 2005
> ___________________________________________
>
> When it comes to veggies, almost everyone can agree on potatoes. But
despite its popularity, the common brown potato has a colorful history that
some researchers are still disputing.
>
> While potatoes are believed to have arrived in Europe in the 1500s from
the South American Andes, Agricultural Research Service botanist David M.
Spooner has uncovered DNA evidence showing that early potatoes also came
from South America's southwestern coast, in lowland Chile.
>
> From outward appearances, modern potatoes would seem to have Chilean
ancestors. European potato plants have wide leaflets like Chilean ones, and
both are "long-day adapted," which means they require the longer days of
summer to form tubers.
>
> But in the 1930s, researchers started challenging the notion of the
Chilean connection, arguing that the first potatoes to reach Europe came
only from the Andes. They claimed Chilean potatoes couldn't have survived
the long journey from their native country, down through the Straits of
Magellan and across the Atlantic.
>
> According to Spooner, who works in the ARS Vegetable Crops Research Unit
at Madison, Wis., potato seeds can last several years and so could have
easily survived the trip. But even more compelling are data he recently
assessed with colleagues at the International Potato Center in Lima, Peru,
and the Central Potato Research Institute in Shimla, India.
>
> The researchers surveyed an assortment of potatoes from India considered
to be remnants of some of the first potatoes to Europe. They found that
these descendants share specific molecular traits with potatoes from
Chile--not the Andes.
>
> Still, some argue that Chilean potatoes weren't introduced to Europe until
after the famous 1840s Irish potato famine, to rescue the crop from the
rot-causing late blight fungus. But, as Spooner points out, Chilean potatoes
aren't known for having resistance to late blight.
>
> With an increased understanding of modern potatoes' true ancestors,
scientists can better preserve the world's potato plants to breed future
varieties and realize the crop's natural disease- and insect-resistance
potential.
>
> ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.
> ___________________________________________
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