The taste is bitter, and the potatoes are medicinal but can be toxic, requiring a lengthy and complex process before they are safe to eat. Nevertheless, several bitter potato varieties grown in the highest altitudes of the Andes of Peru and Bolivia (3500 – 4500 above sea level) are vital nutritional staples for many farmers in the region.
Genomic data refers to information about the plants' genes and DNA. By mapping and understanding which genetic traits make bitter potato varieties resistant to drought, cold, or other stress factors, researchers and farmers can identify and select traits for improvement through breeding.
The metabolic data focuses on the chemical processes and compounds within potato plants, that confer protection from pests. These data can provide insight into how plants respond to environmental conditions through time.
Today, however, some of these varieties are threatened by climate change. This poses significant challenges for those who rely on them in a region with few viable alternatives for crops.
- Baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, fries, and chips are all based on a single crop species, Solanum tuberosum, which is globally cultivated. Other potato species have been domesticated for food but are cultivated only in South America, the bitter potato species for example. My research aims to mitigate the worst effects of climate change while using contemporary and natural history collections, says Nataly Allasi Canales, postdoc researcher at Natural History Museum Denmark.
She researches biodiversity and sustainable crops at the Natural History Museum Denmark, where she is mapping the genomic and metabolic data of these unique potatoes.
Nataly Allasi Canales is originally from the Amazon region of Peru, with roots in the Quechua culture. She holds a PhD in evolutionary genomics from the University of Copenhagen and is a postdoc at the Natural History Museum Denmark. Her research focuses on indigenous plants and their sustainable use, particularly in relation to food security and biodiversity conservation.
- With this project, my dream is to support local family farmers to conserve and innovate their bitter potato varieties in the face of the climate crisis, if they wish to. The ecological models allow farmers to understand where these bitter potatoes will thrive, while the genomic and metabolic data can help them improve their bitter potato varieties to better resist the effects of global climate disruptions, says Nataly Allasi Canales.
So far, Nataly and her collaborators have written about the state-of-the-art knowledge of the evolution of local crops and how integrating Indigenous knowledges into genomics and archaeology. Additionally, Nataly and science historian Helen Anne Curry, have charted the history of the potato specimens collected by the Imperial Agricultural Bureaux (an organization from the British Commonwealth countries) which are the subject for the genomic and metabolite analyses, from its emergence in an extractivist imperial context to its current use in a community-focused research project.
In early 2024, Nataly Allasi Canales went to Peru and Bolivia for fieldwork to collect bitter potatoes and interview Andean farmers. She is currently analyzing bitter potatoes’ occurrences from the past and present to model the suitable niche conditions for them to grow.
- Next step is to analyze the DNA and metabolites in bitter potatoes historical and current samples to understand their kinship and how their genetic diversity and bitterness has changed in time. With these results, I hope to return to the communities to support their innovation of bitter potatoes’ varieties in the face of climate crises, says Nataly Allasi Canales.
