Potatoes came from Peru, US study finds

Reuters - Science ^ | 2005-10-03 | Maggie Fox

[Junior]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The first cultivated potato was grown in what is now Peru, researchers said on Monday, and it originated only once, not several times, as some experts had proposed.

Their genetic study shows the first potato known to have been farmed is genetically closest to a species now found only in southern Peru, the U.S. and British researchers said.

"This result shows the potato originated one time and from a species that was distributed in southern Peru," said David Spooner, a U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher at the University of Wisconsin who, led the study.

The findings challenge theories that potatoes were first cultivated in Bolivia or Argentina, or that farmers bred them several different times in several different places.

"The origin of crop plants has long fascinated botanists, archaeologists, and sociologists with the following fundamental questions: When, where, how, why, and how many times did crop domestication occur? What are the wild progenitors of these crops?" they wrote in their report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study did not address when the first potato would have been cultivated, but other research suggests it would have been between 7,000 and 10,000 years ago.

Potatoes are a major food staple around the world and mostly belong to a single species, Solanum tuberosum. Baking potatoes, red potatoes, golden potatoes and other favorites all originated in southern Chile, neighboring Peru, Spooner said in a telephone interview.

The Chilean potato that gave rise to modern potatoes is probably a hybrid of the ancestral Peruvian potato and a wild species found in Bolivia and Argentina, Spooner said.

But in South America, many other cultivated potatoes are eaten. "There are many different colors -- solid and mottled and dotted from white to tan to purple to red," Spooner said.

Fossil potatoes dating back 7,000 years have been found.

For their study, Spooner and colleagues did genetic comparisons of 261 wild relatives of potatoes and 98 so-called landrace types, which are primitive cultivated crops grown by indigenous peoples.

The U.S. and British researchers believe their findings show a single species, S. bukasovii, gave rise to first known cultivated potato. It would not have closely resembled the big, pale fleshy tubers that people crave today, Spooner said.

"The wild species, many of them have tubers -- the potato part you eat -- that is tiny, sometimes the size of a pea," he said. "Oftentimes they are mildly poisonous."

[Buck W.]

"Potatoes came from Peru"

I KNEW IT! They all LAUGHED at me at the university, but who's laughing now?

[Junior]

CrevoSci threads for the past week:

1. 2005-10-04 A space station view on giant lightning (May play role in global warming!)
2. 2005-10-04 Potatoes came from Peru, US study finds
3. 2005-10-04 The Nobel Prize in Physics 2005 is awarded to Roy J. Glauber, John L. Hall and Theodor W. Hänsch
4. 2005-10-03 Live from Pennsylvania: Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
5. 2005-10-03 Returning to Dover [evolution trial in Dover, PA: week 2]
6. 2005-10-03 Systemic determinants of gene evolution and function
7. 2005-10-03 The timeless truth of creation
8. 2005-10-01 ‘Why?’ versus ‘How?’ [evolution trial in Dover, PA, end of week one]
9. 2005-10-01 Eugenie Scott Makes False Claims About Peer-Reviewed Paper on MSNBC
10. 2005-10-01 For the Anti-Evolutionists, Hope in High Places
11. 2005-10-01 Liars’ brains make fibbing come naturally
12. 2005-10-01 Study: Sun's Changes to Blame for Part of Global Warming
13. 2005-10-01 That Famous Equation and You
14. 2005-09-30 [Pennsylvania] Gov. Rendell backs evolution
15. 2005-09-30 150 attend meeting on 'stupid' theory (including Darwin's great-grandson)
16. 2005-09-30 A remarkable Cassini picture: Hyperion (moon of Saturn)
17. 2005-09-30 An Intelligent Design for Education
18. 2005-09-30 Genes Tied To Recent Brain Evolution
19. 2005-09-30 Grow Some Testables: Intelligent design ducks the rigors of science.
20. 2005-09-30 Orthodoxy and Creationism
21. 2005-09-30 Science and Scripture - 'Intelligent design' theory definitely belongs in biology class
22. 2005-09-30 Spider 'is 20 million years old'
23. 2005-09-30 The ‘Darwinist Inquisition’ Starts Another Round
24. 2005-09-30 The Beauty of Branes [Cosmology & Lisa Randall]
25. 2005-09-30 The Buckingham school: No civil liberties allowed
26. 2005-09-29 Darwin and Malthus
27. 2005-09-29 Have you ever really looked at intelligent design?
28. 2005-09-29 How Leonardo gave top surgeon change of heart
29. 2005-09-29 In defense of science
30. 2005-09-29 Intelligent Design Advocates Fight Back
31. 2005-09-29 No Science, Please – We’re British
32. 2005-09-29 Poll: Most doctors (63%) favor evolution theory over I.D. (However, Protestant Doctors...)
33. 2005-09-29 Religious idea forced on classes, court told
34. 2005-09-29 Theory of Evolution -- Not Intelligent Design -- Is Most Like Creationism
35. 2005-09-29 Witness: 'Intelligent Design' doesn't qualify as science [Day 4 of trial in Dover, PA]
36. 2005-09-28 Ex-Teacher Testifies in Evolution Case [Day 3 of trial in Dover, PA]
37. 2005-09-28 Intelligent design on trial
38. 2005-09-28 Intimidation Alleged On 'Intelligent Design'
39. 2005-09-28 The Discovery Institute Retreats from Dover
40. 2005-09-28 Why scientists dismiss 'intelligent design' - It would ‘become the death of science’
41. 2005-09-28 Witness: intelligent design has identified God as designer

CrevoSci Warrior Freepdays for the month of October:

1998-10-18 AZLiberty
1999-10-14 blam
2000-10-19 cogitator
2001-10-21 Coyoteman
2004-10-26 curiosity
1998-10-29 Dataman
2000-10-29 dila813
2001-10-14 dread78645
1998-10-03 Elsie
1998-10-17 f.Christian
2002-10-08 FairOpinion
2001-10-26 Genesis defender
2000-10-08 guitarist
2004-10-10 joeclarke
1998-10-03 js1138
2000-10-08 LibWhacker
2002-10-25 m1-lightning
2001-10-10 Michael_Michaelangelo
2001-10-09 Mother Abigail
2004-10-25 MRMEAN
2004-10-03 Nicholas Conradin
1999-10-28 PatrickHenry
1998-10-01 Physicist
2005-10-04 ret_medic
2001-10-23 RightWingNilla
2004-10-09 snarks_when_bored
2002-10-22 sumocide
2004-10-21 WildHorseCrash
2001-10-23 yankeedame
2002-10-20 Z in Oregon

In Memoriam.
Fallen CrevoSci Warriors:

Poster CloseTag ALS
Area Freeper
Aric2000
Askel5
bluepistolero
churchillbuff
ConservababeJen
DittoJed2
Ed Current
f.Christian
followerofchrist
goodseedhomeschool
gore3000
Jedigirl
JesseShurun
Le-Roy
Marathon
medved
metacognative
Modernman
Ogmios
peg the prophet
Phoroneus
RickyJ
SeaLion
Tomax
tpaine
WaveThatFlag
xm177e2

Bring back Modernman and SeaLion!

[Semper Paratus]

A Government study that told me the same thing I knew since High School.

How to I get in on some of these "Government Study" jobs?

Maybe a can float a proposal that watching too much TV can hurt your eyes?

[End Times Sentinel]

No, almost all of them came directly from Ireland, and they don't like being called "Potato" either.  They prefer "Irish" as personal experience has taught me.

Owl_Eagle

(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,

 it was probably sarcasm)

[Piquaboy]

I have been worry about where they came from for years. Now maybe I can get some sleep at night.

[Junior]

Leave it to a knee-deep sailor ;^)>

This study was simply a confirmation of earlier hypotheses. This is what we talk about when we mention that scientists are always double-checking each other's claims.

Unless you graduated from high school in the last couple of years, odds are genetic testing wasn't available to the folks making that claim.

[Semper Paratus]

Leave it to a knee-deep sailor ;^)>

Sounds like a slam from a swabbie!

[Constitution Day]

[Junior]

I was tall enough to join the Coast Guard, but I wanted to serve aboard real ships...

[aft_lizard]

I thought this was already known, or was that a rumour or special knowledge I have held for the past 15 years?

[G.Mason]

"Fossil potatoes dating back 7,000 years have been found."

My ex-wife would find them regularly, right back there in New Jersey. ;)

[Fierce Allegiance]

No, almost all of them came directly from Ireland, and they don't like being called "Potato" either. They prefer "Irish" as personal experience has taught me.

Mick doesn't work too well, Especially at 11PM on a Saturday Night in a South Boston bar.

[Junior]

This was a confirmation study. Nothing in science is ever set in stone; researchers are constantly testing others' assertions.

[Fierce Allegiance]

While in the Coast Guard, the irony of the swabbies giving me shit for being a puddle pirate while we towed their broken-down POS rigs to port was lost on them.

Thanks for serving.

[Red Badger]

This has been known for decades..........

[Red Badger]

Fossil potatoes dating back 7,000 years have been found.

Those aren't fossils, they're my mother-in-law's "Potato Surprise" casseroles we hid.............

[dfwgator]

"Ay Caramba."

[Red Badger]

Until I was about 7-8 years old, I thought all potatoes were "Arsh Potaters"........

[Red Badger]

My (very wealthy) favorite uncle served in BOTH Navy and Coast Guard..............Retired from CG........