Transgenic Sunflower - Genetics, Genomics and Breeding of Crop Plants - page 287

Figure 9-2 Oil prices (US$/t) of main vegetable sources. Palm oil corresponds to Malay
market and Rotterdam to the others. Source USDA (2009b).
that period, creating outstanding market conditions for oilseed crops in
2008 (FAO 2008).
Sunflower belongs to the genus Helianthus (Asteraceae), which comprise
about 50 species native to North America (Heiser et al. 1969). It is a
comparatively novel extensive crop, with different uses as oilseed crop,
edible confection, birdseed, and ornamental (Jan and Seiler 2007). Cultivated
sunflower H. annuus L. var. macrocarpus derives from the species
domestication by Native Americans before the discovery of America,
followed by Russian farmers' selection and the breeding done at the former
Soviet Union (FSU) experimental stations (Krasnodar, Saratov, and lately
Rostov). This intense selection work was successful in the creation of several
open-pollinated varieties, rapidly diffused to the entire world in the early
20th century (Vranceanu 1977).
Hybrid cultivars, obtained through crosses among inbred lines, were
developed during the second half of the 20th century (Chapter 2). The
extensive use of hybrid cultivars becomes possible thanks to cheapening of
hybrid seed production through the use of cytoplasmic male sterility (Leclercq