Originally published October 11 2005
USDA scientist proves that potatoes originated in Peru
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A team led by David Spooner, a USDA potato taxonomist stationed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has found evidence that suggests potatoes were domesticated by farmers more than 7,000 years ago in Southern Peru.
The scientists analyzed DNA markers in 261 wild and 98 cultivated potato varieties to assess whether the domestic potato arose from a single wild progenitor or whether it arose multiple times - and the results were clear, says David Spooner, the USDA research scientist who led the study.
"In contrast to all prior hypotheses of multiple origins of the cultivated potato, we have identified a single origin from a broad area of southern Peru," says Spooner, who is also a UW-Madison professor of horticulture.
"The multiple-origins theory was based in part on the broad distribution of potatoes from north to south across many different habitats, through morphological resemblance of different wild species to cultivated species, and through other data.
The earliest archaeological evidence suggests that potatoes were domesticated from wild relatives by indigenous agriculturalists more than 7,000 years ago, says Spooner.
Today, the potato - an international dietary staple - is a major crop in both the United States and in Wisconsin, which is fourth in the nation for potato production.
"Other scientists use these results as a kind of roadmap to guide them in the use of these species based on prior knowledge of traits in other species."
"When researchers discover an important trait - for example, that a certain species is resistant to disease - then everything related to that species becomes potentially useful," Spooner says.
"We can screen samples to see if related germplasm has similar resistance, in which case we may be able to guide plant breeders to germplasm to use in breeding programs."
This is a way to get people to reconsider long-held assumptions of the origin of the potato, and stimulate us to reconsider the origins of other crops using new methods."
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