Eyes on the world - the origin story of the potato

A new study published in the journal Cell has rewritten the origin story of the potato, showing that the crop we know today – and its 107 wild relatives – are the product of an ancient hybridisation event between the ancestors of tomatoes and a littleknown wild potato of South American lineage called Etuberosum.

This significant study, which brought together scientists from China, the US, Canada and Germany, revealed that all potatoes – wild and cultivated – are the result of a natural cross between the ancestors of tomatoes and a group of South American plants called Etuberosum. This happened around 8–9 million years ago.

That single hybridisation event gave rise to potato tubers, leading to an explosion of diverse species in the high Andes.

Nature’s ultimate cross-breeding experiment – this graphical abstract from the paper illustrates how a natural hybrid between tomato and the wild plant Etuberosum gave rise to the first potatoes with tubers, sparking a rapid burst of new potato species across the Andes, Zhang, Z. et al 2025