Abstract
Modern breeding of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.), which started 100 years ago, increased the number and the diversity of cultivated forms. In addition, for more than 50 years, wild sunflower and otherHelianthusspecies have been collected in North America where they all originated. Collections of both cultivated and wild forms are maintained in gene banks in many countries where sunflower is an important crop, with some specificity according to the availability of germplasm and to local research and breeding programmes. Cultivated material includes land races, open pollinated varieties, synthetics and inbred lines. The majority of wild accessions are ecotypes of wildHelianthus annuus, but also 52 other species ofHelianthusand a few related genera. The activities of three gene banks, in USA, France and Serbia, are described in detail, supplemented by data from seven other countries. Past and future uses of the genetic resources for environmental adaptation and breeding are discussed in relation to genomic and improved phenotypic knowledge of the cultivated and wild accessions available in the gene banks.
Highlights
Preservation of important crop species, cultivars, landraces, and crop wild relatives (CWR) provides the basis for a sustainable agricultural system and ensures the security of our global food supply (Campbell et al, 2010)
Wild H. annuus and cultivated sunflower can be crossed with no loss of fertility and the first important genetic resource that formed the base of the restorer pool came from an unintended cross of Canadian material with wild H. annuus in a winter nursery in Texas (Putt, 1964)
The aim of this paper is to provide an update of the main sunflower gene banks around the world, the numbers of accessions they contain and their specificities, and to provide in-depth details of accessions held in the USDA (USA), INRAE (France) and IFVC (Serbia) gene banks
Summary
Preservation of important crop species, cultivars, landraces, and crop wild relatives (CWR) provides the basis for a sustainable agricultural system and ensures the security of our global food supply (Campbell et al, 2010). Wild H. annuus and cultivated sunflower can be crossed with no loss of fertility and the first important genetic resource that formed the base of the restorer pool came from an unintended cross of Canadian material (developed from that of Russian emigrants) with wild H. annuus in a winter nursery in Texas (Putt, 1964) This difference in origins between the CMS (PET1, Leclercq, 1969) maintainer “female” pool from open pollinated Russian varieties and restorers with some wild H. annuus genome may have led to the heterosis observed, one of the reasons for the rapid success of sunflower hybrids since 1970. The discussion will consider how genomics and modern phenotyping methods can improve our knowledge of the resources, mining of the traits of interest, and their importance to provide adequate material for research and breeding in the future
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