Wild potatoes – International Potato Center

Potato has 155 wild relatives growing in varied ecosystems across the Americas, from highland cloud forests to coastaldeserts, where they have evolved to withstand diseases and harsh conditions.

Most of those species produce tiny, inedible tubers, but their genetic diversity holds opportunities for breeding more resilient potatoes. Yet, as scientists try to tap that potential, many wild potatoes are threatened by the expansion of farming, industry and infrastructure, growing urbanization, and changing climates.

Crop breeders at the International Potato Center (CIP) have long used wild species to improve potato varieties. Four years ago, they began crossing wild and cultivated potatoes to produce offspring that combine heat and drought tolerance with resistance to the most important diseases affecting the crop—threats that will grow as global warming advances. Conservation of our agrobiodiversity is increasingly urgent as lost diversity diminishes our potential to adapt to the climate change.

To ensure that enough wild potato diversity is conserved for current and future needs, CIP and Peru’s Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria (INIA) undertook a series of collection trips in 2017-18 to fill genetic gaps in the CIP Genebank collection.

Scientists ventured widely across the center of potato diversity in Peru, which has 80 wild potato species and approximately 3,000 cultivated landraces. Collecting 337 samples of 45 species often meant digging up and transferring plants to greenhouses, so they produced flowers, tubers and seeds for their long-term preservation. The genebank now safeguards 2,338 accessions of 140 wild potato species in trust for humanity using the latest technologies.