News on Native Potatoes from the United States

Tubers have battled various scourges for about 10,000 years, as well as an unpredictable climate that can cause unseasonable frost damage to crops every year.

With drought a persistent problem in the Southwest, Hopi/Tewa seed keeper Valerie Nuvayestewa has eagerly joined the effort to bring back an Indigenous superfood that her ancestors cultivated for 11000 years.

Plant breeders and geneticists of Cornell University have released more than 50 potato varieties since 1908. Now they are expanding their efforts to make more wild potato seeds available to potato breeders around the world.

Examining the ancestors of the modern, North American cultivated potato has revealed a set of common genes and important genetic pathways that have helped potatoes adapt over thousands of years.

Investigadores estadounidenses de la USDA-ARS y la Universidad de Winsconsin-Madison encontraron una papa silvestre con siete veces más calcio que las papas que acostumbramos a ver en los supermercados.

Researchers discovered that in a wild variety of potato (Solanum Microdontum) Calcium levels are about seven times higher than in a regular potato. They developed a molecular marker to facilitate the transfer of the high Calcium trait to newly bred potato varieties.

El geógrafo Karl Zimmerer, de la Universidad estatal de Pennsylvania, presentó sus conclusiones en un simposio sobre biodiversidad en la agricultura durante la reunión anual de la Asociación Estadounidense para el Avance de la Ciencia (AAAS) realizada en Chicago.