With a yield of 100 million tons per year the sweet potato has become the seventh most important crop in the world, and even continues to gain popularity worldwide and in Germany. Thus, researchers are also focussing more and more on this extraordinary plant. An international team of researchers based in China and Germany and including the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam managed to decipher the complex genome of the sweet potato and published their results in the journal “Nature Plants“.

A difficult candidate for genome sequencing

In order to achieve higher yields or higher resistance against inclement weather patterns targeted breeding schemes are necessary, which are oftentimes only possible with deep understanding of the genetic material. Germany’s most important crop plants thus far have been the potato and wheat – both of which have been characterised in detail. Researchers from five different research institutes in China and Germany were able to sequence the complete genome of the sweet potato Ipomoea batatas. This plant belongs to the family Convolvulaceae and even before sequencing began it was clear that due to its complex genome the sweet potato would be a difficult candidate for a complete genome sequencing: the sweet potato has 90 chromosomes – even for plants an unusually high number.