南米・アンデス山脈における植物の生育する土壌環境と窒素吸収 : ジャガイモのドメスティケーションとの関連で

Abstract

The central origin of the potato (Solanum tuberosum) is Lake Titicaca of the central Andean highlands. People living in the Andean mountains utilize potato for staple food from ancient times. According to the previous studies, the distribution of the wild species related with the cultivars is human- induced environment such as roadside, cultivated fields, Inca ruins and garbage dumps. However, the mankind marched to the Andean mountains before approximately 10 thousand years. Before mankind's arrivals, the wild species of potato grew in the Andean mountains. We focus on the dung piles of vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) of Camelidae animal for the gene cradles for Solanum species. One of the wild species, Solanum acaule, establishes the colonies at the dung piles of vicuña. They absorb the nitrogen from the abundant soil nutrients of the dung piles for both vegetative and seed reproduction. The tuber growth of the Solanum cultivar is related with the rich nutrition use of the wild species growing in the dung piles of Camelidae animals.