usatoday24
For those who are not experts in gastronomic history, it is difficult to get the idea of what European medieval cuisine would be like. Today these two vegetables are two of the angle stones of the kitchen, we are in Andalusia or Helsinki, but there was a time when Europeans did not even know their existence. But the story of these two foods goes much further back in time, to an anterior era even to the appearance of the human being.
The origin of the potato. Now, a genetic study has achieved Show us the degree of kinship Among the plants that give us the potato (Solanum tuberosum) and the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). The study has indicated that the appearance of the potato was due to the natural crossing between the tomato and another plant called Etuberosum.
The analysis has placed this crossing in time: it would have happened about nine million years ago. With regard to the place of origin of this plant, the study has not given any surprise since this crossing would have occurred in South America, the first continent where the potato became a key crop.
“Our findings show how a hybridization event between species can detonate the evolution of new features, allowing even more species to emerge,” pointed in a press release Sanwen Huang, member of the study responsible for the study. “We have finally resolved the mystery of where the potatoes come from.”
Solanum. The name of both plant species already gives us a clue: the close kinship between these plants had not yet escaped the experts who had classified both species in the genus Solanumthe “type” gender of the Solanáceas family (Solanaceae), family that includes other vegetables such as eggplants and peppers, while plants such as Petunia and The Datura.
However, there was something that did not fit into this extensive family and that had been intrigued for the experts for some time. It was in the resemblance between the potato plant and a third species of soanácea of the same genre as the previous ones, Solanum ethuberosum. These plants are apparently resemble the potato plant, however They do not produce tubers In their roots, a fact that confused those who studied this family.
Surprise in the family. The new genetic analysis explains that the difference between these plants lies in the fact that, despite the fact that the potato plant is more morphologically similar to Etuberosumit is with the tomato plant that the popular tuber is closely related.
506 Genomas. In his study, the team analyzed 450 genomes extracted from cultivated potatoes and 56 genomes of wild potato species. According to the team, this last part was an important challenge due to the difficulty of obtaining samples of the wild variants of these plants.
The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Cell.
More than a family tree. The team also analyzed some key genes for the formation of tubers in these plants, the result of the combination of genetic material from both precursor species. They found, for example, the work of the SP6A gene, which acts as a “switch” that indicates when to start developing these structures and that comes from tomato plants. They also investigated in the IT1 gene, responsible for the growth of these tubers, from the plant side Etuberosum.
Image | Shalev Cohen / Rodrigo Dos Reis
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