Cracking The Potato’s Genetic Code
Posted on: Sunday, 14 September 2008, 17:45 CDT
Researchers all over the globe are teaming up to crack the genetic code of the potato as global food prices and populations surge.
Solanum tuberosum, known as the potato to you and I, seems like a simple vegetable, but is filled with 12 hidden chromosomes and 840 million DNA pairs. Humans contain 3 billion DNA base pairs.
The Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium includes researchers from 13 countries, all working together to unlock the mysteries of one of the worlds most popular crops.
The group plans to have completed the project by 2010, and will make its findings public so plant breeders can develop new seeds to resist drought and disease.
"We'll be able to design seeds more effectively and more efficiently after we know precisely which genes do what," said Gisella Orjeda, biology professor at the Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, Peru.
Researchers say it will be easier to identify genes in the 5,000 plus varieties of wild potatoes when the white potato genome is sequenced.
Food security experts believe the potato could be a very important crop, feeding many cheaply in an increasingly hungry world.
The United Nations recently named 2008 the International Year of the Potato, pointing to the world's third-most popular crop behind rice and wheat, as the world antidote for hunger.
Though the potato originated in the Andes mountains 8,000 years ago. China is now the largest grower of the vegetable. Farmers in developing countries continue to plant the crop as the world's population grows by 1 billion every 10 years.
According to Orjeda, the potato genome sequencing project could bring in a new era for the potato, now being called history's most important vegetable.
"The potato isn't just important now. It has always been important -- it's what enabled the Industrial Revolution in Europe (by allowing for a population boom), but also what caused the potato famine in Ireland," Orjeda said.
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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User Comments (2)
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Posted by dakota on 09/14/2008, 19:30 interesting! |
| 1. |
Posted by Mike on 09/14/2008, 19:17 Interesting! |
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