Transgenic Sunflower - Genetics, Genomics and Breeding of Crop Plants - page 303

Table 9-5 Wild species that produced viable progeny in crosses with cultivated Helianthus
annuus as male parent (adopted from Jan 1997).

Female parent Chromosome Hybrid 1 Distribution countries

number (n) (native or naturalized)

Section Helianthus (annuals)
H. annuus

1 7 A, N US, Argentina,

Australia,Spain, France,
Italy, Serbia

H. niveus 17 A US

H. debilis 1 7 A, N US, Mozambique

H. praecox 1 7 A, N U S

H. petiolaris 1 7 A, N US, Argentina

H. neglectus 17 A US

H. bolanderi 1 7 A, N U S

H. paradoxus 1 7 A, N U S

H. argophyllus 1 7 A, N US, Mozambique

Section Atrorubens (perennials)
Series Corona-solis
H. hirsutus 34 A US

H. decapetalus 17, 34 A US

H. strumosus 34, 51 A US

H. tuberosus 5 1 A, N US, France, Germany

H. giganteus 17 A US

H. grosseserratus 17 A US

H. maximiliani 17 A US

Series Atrorubentes
H. rigidus 17 A US
1 Artifcial (A) or natural (N) hybrids obtained without embryo culture.

(Bervillé et al. 2005; Muller et al. 2009). In Australia, established H. annuus
was introduced with ornamental and forage purposes before the 20th century
(Dry and Burdon 1986). The ability to develop feral populations also extends
to other annual species; H. argophyllus and H. debilis have naturalized with a
high interspecific hybridization rate in Mozambique (Quagliaro et al. 2001;
Vischi et al. 2004; Ribeiro et al. 2005) and the perennial H. tuberosus has been
established in France (Faure et al 2002a) and Germany (Kowarik 2005).
In 2000, the high number of applications for experimental trials and
release of transgenic sunflower varieties in Argentina motivated the National
Committee for Agricultural Biotechnology (CONABIA) to promote a detailed
exploration for wild annual Helianthus populations, addressed to evaluate
likely wild-crop gene flow. Field exploration trips revealed extensive