US new peanut has a wild past and domesticated present

The wild relatives of modern peanut plants have the ability to withstand disease in ways that modern peanut plants can’t. The genetic diversity of these wild relatives means that they can shrug off the diseases that kill farmers’ peanut crops, but they also produce tiny nuts that are difficult to harvest because they burrow deep in the soil. Consider it a genetic trade-off — during its evolution, the modern peanut lost its genetic diversity and much of the ability to fight off fungus and viruses, but gained qualities that make peanut so affordable, sustainable and tasty that people all over the world grow and eat them. Modern peanut plants were created 5,000 to 10,000 years ago, when two diploid ancestors — plants with two sets of chromosomes — came together by chance, and became tetraploids — plants with four sets of chromosomes. While domesticated peanuts traveled around the world and show up in cuisine from Asia to Africa to the Americas, their wild relatives stayed close to ...