{
  "id": 6672289,
  "title": "Reticulate History of Southern South American Wild Potatoes: Recurrent Hybridization, Cytonuclear Discordance, and Phylogenetic Placement of Solanum malmeanum",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/10/reticulate-history-of-southern-south-american-wild-potatoes-recurrent",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-10T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.06.749666v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the study of the evolutionary history of Commersoniana group of Solanum, particularly Solanum commersonii and Solanum malmeanum, compared to Solanum chacoense from the Tuberosa Group, hybridization emerges as a significant driving force. This process, which is prevalent in plant evolution, results in intricate patterns of speciation, gene flow, and chloroplast uptake. By employing a comprehensive approach that combines phylogenomics and morphology, researchers were able to examine the genetic and morphological characteristics of these potato species.\n\nUsing target-capture sequencing on nuclear and chloroplast DNA from herbarium specimens, alongside data mining techniques, the researchers were able to construct phylogenies for both nuclear and chloroplast genomes. This allowed them to conduct symmetry tests, gene concordance analyses, and coalescent simulations to differentiate between incomplete lineage sorting and chloroplast capture. The findings revealed significant discordance between the nuclear and chloroplast genomes, indicating instances of chloroplast capture from Solanum chacoense into Commersoniana lineages. Both empirical and simulated results supported these findings.\n\nThe phylogenetic networks generated by the study confirm repeated historical and recent instances of reticulation, specifically involving Solanum malmeanum. However, non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) of morphological traits did not yield distinct species boundaries, suggesting a hybrid origin for the group. These results collectively demonstrate that recurrent hybridization and chloroplast capture play a crucial role in the evolutionary trajectory of the examined wild potatoes. This complexity poses challenges to traditional taxonomic classifications. The study emphasizes the importance of integrating genomic and phenotypic data to accurately delineate species boundaries, especially in plant groups with intricate hybrid histories. The findings underscore the value of a multidisciplinary approach in understanding the evolutionary dynamics of such taxonomically complex groups.",
  "summary": "Hybridization is a powerful process in plant evolution generating reticulate patterns of speciation, introgression, and chloroplast capture. In the Petota clade of Solanum, which spans cultivated and wild potatoes, these processes cause much of the taxonomic complexity of the group. We examined the evolutionary history of the Commersoniana group (Solanum commersonii and S. malmeanum) relative to…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}