About nine million years ago in the Andes mountains, a tomato plant crossbred with a species that resembled potato plants, but lacked tubers, or bulbous, subterranean plant stems that can sprout new plants from its “eyes.” This interbreeding led to tubers, which were inherited across the thousands of cultivated and wild potato varieties. A team of researchers published their findings on this hybridization in the journal Cell this past July.
After analyzing dozens of genomes from cultivated and wild potato varieties, the team found that every species examined had a mixed genetic composition with about half coming from tomatoes and half from tuberless potato plants. This consistent combination indicates potatoes began as a single hybrid crossing between these two groups.
New hybrids are often sterile because of genetic incompatibilities. Still, the cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum) and its many tuber relatives prove that hybridization has the ability to form new, complex organs and drive evolution.
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