Potatoes Descend From Single Peruvian Cultivar
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Potatoes originated from a single domestication, not from multiple domestications throughout the hemisphere as researchers previously believed, U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers reported this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Comparing DNA markers from 261 wild and 98 cultivated strains of potatoes, the team concluded that the plant was first cultivated more than 7,000 years ago in southern Peru.