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| Ipomoea aequatoriensis T.Wells & P.Muñoz, in Munoz-Rodriguez, Wells, Wood, et al., 2022. |
SUMMARY
• The origin of sweetpotato, a hexaploid species, is poorly understood, partly because the identity of its tetraploid progenitor remains unknown. In this study, we identify, describe and characterise a new species of Ipomoea that is sweetpotato’s closest tetraploid relative known to date and probably a direct descendant of its tetraploid progenitor.
• We integrate morphological, phylogenetic, and genomic analyses of herbarium and germplasm accessions of the hexaploid sweetpotato, its closest known diploid relative Ipomoea trifida, and various tetraploid plants closely related to them from across the American continent.
• We identify wild autotetraploid plants from Ecuador that are morphologically distinct from I. batatas and I. trifida, but monophyletic and sister to I. batatas in phylogenetic analysis of nuclear data.
• We describe this new species as Ipomoea aequatoriensis T.Wells & P.Muñoz sp. nov., distinguish it from hybrid tetraploid material collected in Mexico; and show that it likely played a direct role in the origin of sweetpotato’s hexaploid genome. This discovery transforms our understanding of sweetpotato’s origin.
Keywords: crop wild relatives, Ecuador, genomics, herbarium specimens, Ipomoea aequatoriensis new species, tetraploid
Ipomoea aequatoriensis T.Wells & P.Muñoz sp. nov.
Pablo Munoz-Rodriguez, Tom Wells, John R.I. Wood, Tom Carruthers, Noelle L. Anglin, Robert L. Jarret and Robert W. Scotland. 2022. Discovery and Characterisation of Sweetpotato’s Closest Tetraploid Relative. New Phytologist. DOI: 10.1111/nph.17991
Mystery of sweetpotato origin uncovered, as missing link plant found by Oxford research
