Temporal Dynamics of the Origin and Domestication of Sweet Potato and Implications for Dispersal to Polynesia

In a study focussed on the origin of Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. (the sweet potato) and its close relatives [1], the authors claimed that a specimen of sweet potato collected by Banks and Solander in 1769 in Polynesia was distinct and along with some other varieties had levels of genetic variation of more than 100,000 years. This timeframe, along with several other lines of evidence, was interpreted, by the authors, as questioning human-mediated transport of the sweet potato to Polynesia within the last 1,000 years. This aspect of the paper received widespread media coverage as well as a number of critical remarks, and correspondence. The criticism questioned whether claims in the paper were justified. Here, three authors from the paper take the opportunity to fully explain the reasoning for calling into question the need to invoke human mediated transport of the sweet potato to Polynesia.