Where did the potato come from? Tomatoes, 9 million years ago, apparently.

Scientists believe hybridization between a tomato and etuberosum created the modern-day potato. Courtesy of Yuxin Jia and Pei Wang

They’re one of the world’s most important food crops and delicious roasted, mashed or fried, but the exact genetic origins of the humble potato have long been something of a mystery to scientists.

Now, researchers say the modern-day potato evolved from hybridization of the ancestors of tomato plants and another potato-like plant, known as etuberosum, in South America up to 9 million years ago. The hybridization created the petota lineage — which includes the cultivated potato seen in supermarkets around the world, as well as 107 wild potato species.

Sandra Knapp, a plant taxonomist at the Natural History Museum in London and an author of the study, said in