Molecular studies on the origin of the cultivated potato; a review

Molecular data have been used to address the origin of the crop potato, relationships with its wild relatives and the introduction of the cultivated potato from South America into Europe and the rest of the world. Results from the chloroplast and nuclear genome conflict as to the role taxa such as Solanum tarijense, S. stenotomum and the Brevicaule complex have played in the origin of the crop. Different data sets give rise to different hypotheses on the single or multiple domestication event(s) that occurred, most probably in southern Peru. Molecular studies focusing on the first introductions from South America to Europe show that introductions before the late blight epidemics were already a mixture of both Andean and Chilean S. tuberosum plant material.