These are fingerling potatoes from one of the gene lines sequenced by researchers in a two-year worldwide genetics project. A researcher called the potato the world's most important vegetable.

DETROIT — A global team of researchers has mapped the genetic code of the world's most popular vegetable — the potato.

The draft of the potato genome released last week represents the work of more than 50 scientists from 16 institutions and will provide a starting point for other researchers to develop sturdier, more nutritious potatoes.

That's important because the potato is widely grown and plays a central role in feeding the world's 6.3 billion people, said Robin Buell, a Michigan State University plant biologist who worked on the project. The East Lansing school announced the results in the U.S.

"The potato is the most important vegetable worldwide," Buell said. "This report on potato (genes) is a major milestone in genome mapping."

The Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium began work in 2006. It has 16 institutional members in Argentina, Britain, Chile, China, India, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Russia and the United States. Michigan State and Virginia Tech are formal members of the consortium, and some work was done at the University of Wisconsin.

The potato genome has 12 chromosomes with 840 million base pairs, about a quarter the size of the human genome. The draft covers 95 percent of potato genes.

Launched by the Plant Breeding Department at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, the work took off with development of a new computer program at China's Beijing Genomics Institute. The computer program allowed researchers to more easily pool results of their work on chromosome segments to create a full genetic map.

As a researcher at the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Md., Buell was part of a collaborative effort in 1999-2005 that mapped the gene structure of rice. A nearly complete genome map of maize, or corn, was announced in 2008.

A gene map allows quicker development of crop strains. The rice map has already led to the development of a variety that can survive being submerged in water and is used in flood-prone Bangladesh, according to the International Rice Research Institute.

First cultivated in South America about 7,000 years ago, the potato is now grown on every continent but Antarctica.