French fries must be dipped in tomato ketchup to taste best. It was inevitable that potatoes and tomatoes share a good compatibility. It has been revealed that potatoes were born from a tomato family plant that existed in South America about 9 million years ago. This discovery is expected to provide clues to solve how the tuber of potatoes evolved.
Researchers from the Shenzhen Agricultural Genomics Institute under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences noted on the 1st that today's potatoes originated from natural hybridization between wild tomatoes and Etuberosum. The research findings were published that day in the international academic journal 'Cell.'
Today's potatoes are similar in appearance to a plant called Etuberosum, which grows wild in Chile. However, it has been known that genetically, they are closer to tomatoes, leaving the origin of potatoes a mystery. Potatoes reproduce by cutting their underground tubers, while Etuberosum is an angiosperm that reproduces by seeds. Tubers serve to store nutrients in the ground, with their thicker end form resembling that of a stem.
The researchers analyzed the genomes of 450 cultivated potato varieties and 56 wild potato species. As a result, genes from both tomatoes and Etuberosum were mixed in all potato species. This implies that natural hybridization occurred between the two plants, resulting in the ancestors of potatoes.
Scientists had thought that Etuberosum and tomatoes split from a common ancestor 14 million years ago and evolved separately for 5 million years. This research confirmed that the two plants maintained a close enough relationship to be able to hybridize.
The researchers also revealed where the potato's key trait, the tuber, originated from. It was shown that the gene acting as a switch to indicate when to form tubers comes from tomatoes, while the gene that helps roots grow from tubers comes from Etuberosum. Both genes must work together to create tubers, and the combination of tomatoes and Etuberosum allowed potatoes to evolve.
The tuber of potatoes played a significant role in their survival during the time when the Andes Mountains rapidly rose. Amid the rapidly changing high-altitude terrain, potatoes could store nutrients in the ground using their tubers and sprout from them without seeds or pollen.
Sanwen Huang, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, explained, "The evolution of the tuber played a crucial role in helping potatoes overcome harsh environments and spread into various ecosystems," noting it as the background that created the diversity of potatoes we know today.
References
Cell (2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.034