All modern varieties of potatoes trace their roots back to a single species that was grown in what is now southern Peru more than 7,000 years ago, a team of U.S. and British scientists report. 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 study in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences analyzed the DNA of 360 wild and cultivated potato varieties and the results clearly identified a single species, says David Spooner, a Department of Agriculture researcher at the University of Wisconsin who led the study.
Quoted: David Spooner, a Department of Agriculture researcher