Potato varieties are displayed in the annual potato crop at a harvest festival in the highland village of Pillapi in 2006. — REUTERS/David Mercado/File Photo
The potato is one of the world's food staples, first cultivated thousands of years ago in the Andes region of South America before spreading globally from the 16th century. But despite its importance to humankind, the evolutionary origins of the potato have remained puzzling - until now.
A new analysis of 450 genomes from cultivated potatoes and 56 genomes of wild potato species has revealed that the potato lineage originated through natural interbreeding between a wild tomato plant and a potato-like species in South America about 9 million years ago.
