New scientific research from Oxford University's Plant Sciences department transforms our understanding of the origins of the sweetpotato - identifying a key piece in the puzzle of the evolutionary history of one of the world’s most important staple crops.
New scientific research from Oxford University's Plant Sciences department transforms our understanding of the origins of the sweetpotato - identifying a key piece in the puzzle of the evolutionary history of one of the world’s most important staple crops.
Years of careful taxonomic research by a team led by Robert Scotland, Professor of Systematic Botany at Oxford Plant Sciences, and funded by the UK's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, has concluded with the discovery of a new species that is sweet potato’s closest wild relative, Ipomoea aequatoriensis.
This species, which most likely played a key role in the origin of the crop, is the latest in a series of discoveries by the Oxford team and collaborators at USDA and the International Potato Centre Peru, and one that represents an ‘extraordinary discovery in untangling the evolution’ of the plant, according to the researchers.
Professor Scotland says, ‘How the sweet potato evolved has always been a mystery. Now, we have found this new species in Ecuador that is the closest wild relative of sweet potato known to date and is a fundamental piece of the puzzle to understand the origin and evolution of this top-ten global food crop.’
Read more at University of Oxford
Photo Credit: manseok_Kim via Pixabay
