Recurrent selection for resistance to Sclerotinia head rot was carried out for 15 cycles on a restorer sunflower population created in 1978. For the first 3 cycles a test measuring rate of extension of mycelium on the back of capitula was used; from the fourth cycle onwards, it was combined with a test based on ascospore infections, which repeat more closely natural infections. An 80% reduction in diseased area was obtained in 4 cycles, with the first test, thereafter the population remained stable and homogeneous for this character. In 12 cycles the latency index (measure of incubation period) of the ascospore test doubled, and the best relation with cycle was a simple regression, with a significant slope, indicating that further improvements should be possible. The hybrids made with the first, sixth and fifteenth generations of the population showed a halving of percentage attack in the field and hybrids with some of the best lines bred from several cycles presented even greater levels of resistance. This population is available to sunflower breeders and scientists.

A 10-day trip, encompassing 4600 km in the southeastern USA states of Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, was made in October, 2003. Our primary objective was to locate populations of Helianthus eggertii, then on the USDI, Fish and Wildlife Service Threatened and Endangered Species list, and H. verticillatus, a candidate for endangered species status. Helianthus eggertii has since been de-listed (August 2005). An additional objective was to collect seeds of H. porteri, a species reclassified from Viguiera porteri, which is endemic to granite rock outcrops in Georgia. We collected seeds from 27 populations of the above three species plus three additional species, H. angustifolius, H. atrorubens, and H. smithii. Seed was deposited with the USDA-ARS North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station at Ames, Iowa (NCRPIS) from which 24 of the 27 collections are available for distribution. The three ‘target’ species were represented by 13 collections of H. eggertii, eight of H. porteri, and two of H. verticillatus; none of the three species were previously available from the NCRPIS sunflower collection. The availability of seed of these three species will allow researchers around the world the opportunity to investigate the potential of these wild Helianthus species to contribute useful traits to cultivated sunflower. Complete collection data has been loaded into the USDA-ARS Germplasm Resource Information Net work (GRIN), and is available on the internet (www.ars-grin.gov).

The target region amplification polymorphism (TRAP) marker technique was employed to expand the published sunflower simple sequence repeat (SSR) linkage map constructed from a recombinant inbred population derived from the cross of RHA 280 × RHA 801. A previous report described the mapping of 183 TRAP markers generated by using fixed primers designed against the conserved Arabidopsis-type telomere sequence repeat into the above mentioned map of 577 SSR markers. Thirty-two markers were mapped to the outermost positions of the linkage groups, defining 21 of the 34 linkage group ends. This paper reports the integration of an additional 220 TRAP markers onto the same map. These newly added TRAP markers were generated by 23 combinations with fixed primers designed against selected sunflower ESTs showing homology with components of plant disease resistance genes and homeobox genes. The resulting map consists of 980 markers in 17 linkage groups (LG) and the total length is 1920 centiMorgan (cM). Although the aver age distance between two markers is less than two cM, there are four gaps larger than 20 cM (one in LG2, one in LG4, and two in LG6). The gaps could be due to the lack of polymorphism between the two parental lines in these chromosome regions with respect to the type of markers used in this study.

Four species of the Helianthus genus have been found in the non-arable and arable communities in Vojvodina and Serbia, namely: H. annuus, H. tuberosus, H. decapetalus and H. scaberimus. Studies conducted hitherto have shown that Helianthus annuus has the highest frequency in all weed phytocoenoses examined so far. The spreading of H. decapetalus and H. scaberimus, introduced to Vojvodina from the neighboring Hungary and Romania, has still not assumed alarming proportions in quantitative terms, but a ten dency has been observed of their further spreading. It is therefore necessary to monitor and study the trend of their expansion over the coming period.

For sunflowers to be a profitable industrial-use crop, input costs must be as low as possible. Genetic resistance is therefore essential to control diseases without any spraying or seed treatment procedures. In France, Downy mildew is one of the most potentially important diseases. So far, complete, major gene resistance (Pl genes) has been used successfully, but with the appearance of seven new races since 2000, research on more durable resistance has been undertaken. Since 2003, methodologies for large-scale trials have been developed to study field reaction to Downy mildew attacks on genotypes which do not have Pl genes effective against the predominant races present. It has been shown that significant levels of partial resistance exist in cultivated sunflower lines (15% infection when susceptibles show 80-90% infection). This resistance appears independent of race (at least 710 and 703). Heredity is under additive control and the behaviour of hybrids can be quite well predicted from inbred lines. Present and future research programmes are discussed and suggestions are made for the use of partial resistance in breeding programmes.

Study of inbreeding and heterosis in sunflower has been taking place for over 80 years now. Practical application of the phenomenon of heterosis in this species began after the discovery of a suitable source of cytoplasmic male sterility in 1969 and that of restorer genes. Many authors have reported significant manifestation of heterosis for seed yield and yield components as well. Also, the mode of inheritance of agronomically important traits in the F1 and F2 generations has been thoroughly examined. Positive correlations for yield have been established between paren tal lines and F1 hybrids. The GCA and SCA for yield and yield components have been well studied. Solutions have been suggested on how to increase the harvest index and sink capacity as well as the contributions of individual physiological parameters in the process of yield augmentation. In order to increase heterotic effects for seed yield and oil yield and direct and indirect yield components, it is necessary to increase the genetic variability of pre-breeding materials, achieve improved efficacy at the inbreeding stage, and streamline and accelerate the process of GCA and SCA evaluation using molecular markers and other biotechnology methods in order to achieve breeding goals. Seed oil content should be increased to over 55% using recurrent selec tion methods. Special focus in breeding programs should be placed on the development of high-oleic hybrids (>95%) with a high genetic potential for oil yield, resistance to the dominant diseases, and wide environmental adaptabil ity that would be used for industrial purposes (production of biodiesel, or hydrogen). In order to extent the duration of sunflower oil stability, beta, gamma and delta tocopherols should be incorporated instead of alpha ones alongside the Ol genes. The exiting genetic variability of the cultivated sunflower makes it possible to develop hybrids with a genetic potential for seed yield of over 6 t/ha and seed oil content of over 55%. Most often, however, sun flower yields obtained in large-scale commercial sunflower production are in the 1.5-3.0 t/ha range. There are multiple limiting factors preventing the realization of the high genetic potential of this crop. Their removal will enable com mercial sunflower yield to stabilize at levels of 4 t/ha and above. Diseases are the main limiting factor affecting sunflower production in all sunflower-growing parts of the world. Development of exotic germplasm through further use of wild sunflower species, distant hybridization and genetic transformations should be used to provide genes for resistance to all dominant pathogens and broomrape. Efficient breeding methods should be employed to increase sunflower tol erance of air and soil drought and salinity and to attain wider resistance to her bicides.

Oil quality in vegetable oils is a relative concept that depends on the end use of the oil. Vegetable oils are intended for food applications (salads and cooking oils, margarines, shortenings, etc) and nonfood industrial applications (biodiesel, lubricants, surfactants, etc). Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) oil has been traditionally appreciated in the world oil market. However, new emerging markets are demanding changes in oil quality for both food and non food applications. Nutritional and functional properties determining oil quality are primarily determined by the fatty acid composition of oil and the total content and composition of natural antioxidants, especially tocopherols. During the last 30 years these components have been extensively modified in sunflower through conventional selection from naturally occurring variation and trough mutagenesis. As a result, together with the standard sunflower oil whose fatty acid profile is made up of 11% saturated fatty acids, 20% oleic acid, and 69% linoleic acid, there is currently available a vast diversity of other sunflower oil types, for example low saturated (25%), high stearic (>25%), high oleic (>85%), high linoleic (>75%) as well as a number of oils with intermediate levels and combinations among them. Similarly, the standard sunflower oil with 95% of the tocopherols in the alpha-tocopherol form has been modified to produce oils with high levels of beta-tocopherol (>75%), gamma-tocopherol (>95%), and delta-tocopherol (>65%). The novel fatty acid and tocopherol traits are in all cases governed by a reduced number of genes, which facilitates considerably their management in plant breeding programs aimed at developing cultivars with improved oil quality.

The increasing demand for energy, growing scarcity of fossil fuel and envi ronmental concern have stimulated the policy makers in US and Europe to search for alternative sources of energy and the agricultural sector can be a viable solution to this problem. This analysis is addressed to the study of a feasibility of the agro-industrial chain, including farms and industrial plants, to produce biofuel as though it were an “island economy”, i.e., a net energy exporter only if the energy and economic values of the biofuel and its co-prod ucts exceeds that of all direct and indirect energy inputs. More specifically, the analysis is dedicated to economic, energetic and ecological aspects of the energy cogeneration approach that complete the “Island Model”' and demon strate to be more sustainable to afford competitively the economic and energetic problems. This model is based on sunflower crop used for production of biodiesel, while the co-product sunflower meal is used in the dairy production, the wastes are recycled in biogas production to generate electricity and heat, and the final residual compost is used for fertilization. This integrated farm energy cogeneration project (IFECO) requires to analyze the different steps of the agro-industrial chain and to afford investments in energy plants and operating costs; to manage the integrated agro-industrial energy chain more skilled labour is required; hence, the convenience to operate IFECO will depend on the capacity to organize and coordinate the many activities performed at different chain steps, with achievement of scale and scope economies. The macroeconomic targets as occupation, value added, import of energy products and inflation, justify the public intervention in programs directed to biodiel defiscalization and support of the energy crops such as soybean, sunflower and others. The results obtained from IFECO suggest that the total energy produced by sunflower chain is significantly superior to the energy spent, the economic gain is reflected in a considerable increase in the annual income and value of land from capitalization of permanent net farm income; finally, the life cycle GHG savings from displacing the fossil fuel (reduction in CO, VOC, PM10, SOx, Nox) are a valuable contribution that ameliorate the ecological conditions of the biosphere and must be considered as a market value if the Kyoto Protocol is to be applied.

Methods of current hydrogen production for the petroleum refinery industry as well as future technologies under research and development in preparation for a global hydrogen-based economy are briefly reviewed. The advantages of biomass and of liquid biofuels, including vegetable oils as fuel sources in the sustainable production of hydrogen gas are then presented. The bulk of this lecture is thereafter concerned with the thermo-chemical means of hydrogen production which are suitable to the conversion of vegetable oil into hydrogen gas. In particular, previous work on the catalytic steam reforming of vegetable oils is summarised and the advantages and drawbacks of conventional steam reforming exposed. The principles behind an exciting novel process of steam reforming called “unmixed steam reforming” (or USR) that is fuel flexible, insensitive to coking, and therefore suitable to unconventional gas and liquid fuels are outlined next. Based on the work carried out at the University of Leeds, preliminary results from tests of the USR process involving sunflower oil fuel are then presented and discussed. To conclude the lecture, future work planned in this area of investigation is outlined.

Unsaturated fatty acid esters derived from seed oils undergo metathesis at the C=C bond to give new internal and terminal olefins of interest in chemical manufacturing. The key to realizing this industrial opportunity is the ability to deploy catalysts that tolerate functional groups and remain reactive towards internal olefins even at high conversions. Recent developments in catalyst and reactor design are bringing these targets closer to commercial reality.

The paper summarizes a project for an experimental energy system to be developed as a strategic measure to enhance global competitiveness of the Industrial Development Area (ASI) of Aragona - Favara in Agrigento Province. The aim of the project is to achieve a self-sufficient system (“Energy Island”) fed only with bio-oil from local crops. Planned duration of the experiment is four years, and the final goal is to establish new and profitable enterprises taking advantage from a cost-effective and sustainable energy supply chain: planned activities, in fact, involve farming and oil production ventures as well as the energy intensive food industries already settled in the area. Industrial-scale benefits will be achieved by expanding experimental plants, in line with the original concept, once satisfactory profitability has been demonstrated on small scale. Strategic principles of the project, in particular the “short supply chain” concept, are illustrated first. The Industrial Development Area of Aragona Favara is then examined as to its energy demand, which should be met by renewable energy. The supply side is subsequently analyzed, focusing on how a short supply chain for oleaginous crops (sunflower and rapeseed) could be structured by appointing some set-aside agricultural areas to industrial crops. Incentives and national legislation on renewable energy are presented to outline market opportunities for energy and for produced biofuel once the experimental phase is concluded. Technical details of the project are then given, with process description and an account of how the experimental plants have been sized, deriving energy and mass flow balances and estimating avoided GHG emissions within the experimental timeframe. Agronomic and energy conversion activities related to construction and operation of the experimental systems are illustrated and future developments and strategic implications are outlined. The project has been conceived by the CIFRA - Interdepartment Center for Environmental Research and Education of Udine University - on behalf and with the cooperation of the Unione Industriali - Agrigento.

There are strategic as well as economic incentives to develop a renewable, United States-based supply of natural rubber. Currently, nearly all commercial natural rubber comes from a single species, the Brazilian rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) and the US is almost completely dependent on imports from dis tant countries. Global natural rubber production will be best served in the future by multiple natural rubber crops. However, for most rubber crops, the ability to produce rubber that is economically competitive with rubber from Hevea brasiliensis is essential, because the largest increasing demand for rub ber is to make tires as China and India industrialize. Leaves of sunflower (Helianthus annuus) produce rubber and researchers have postulated there is genetic potential for increasing the rubber content of cultivated H. annuus. Sunflower is a good candidate as a potential rubber source because this plant species already makes rubber which means it can compartmentalize this secondary product, it is adapted for agronomic production, it produces high biomass per acre, and sunflower agronomy is well understood and would need only minor adjustment as a rubber crop. H. annuus currently produces little rubber of low molecular weight and also is notoriously recalcitrant to genetic transformation. In this paper, we describe progress in the development of tissue culture, transformation and regeneration of H. annuus, and genetic engineering of sunflower for increased rubber quality and production.

Sunflower applications in phytotechnologies for the clean-up of inorganic and organic contaminants and pollutants are reviewed in this compilation. There have been several apprehensions on the application of phytoremediation technology. High bioproductivity and biomass yield are a must for the success of this strategy. The phytoextraction coefficient of sunflowers is high compared with many other species. Sunflower is a proven laboratory and field example for the emerging environmental industry. It is the most promising terrestrial candidate for metal and radionuclide removal from water. Rhizofiltration of U from water using sunflower plants was demonstrated in pilot-scale experiments. Sunflower accumulates Cs and Sr, with Cs remaining in the roots and Sr moving into the shoots. Published research reports have indicated that sunflower accelerated the mineralization of 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) in an abandoned pasture, forest land and a floodplain. Chelator assisted metal accumulation; mycorrhizal fungi enhanced toxic trace elements accumulation and tolerance of plants are increasingly considered for remediation of mining sites.

Within the past decade, the desire for alternative sources of fuels, chemicals, feeds, and other materials has received increased attention. Wild sunflower species have the potential to contribute to these renewable resources. During the past three decades, the narrow genetic base of cultivated sunflower has been broadened by the infusion of genes from wild relatives, which have provided a continuous source of agronomic traits for crop improvement. The genus Helianthus is composed of 51 species and 19 subspecies with 14 annual and 37 perennial species. Although oil concentrations of up to 37 g/kg have been reported in whole plants of one wild sunflower species, H. ciliaris, the achenes are the primary storage tissue for oil. The fatty acid composition of the achene oil determines its suitability for either food or industrial uses. Considerable variability has been reported in fatty acid composition of oil in achenes of the wild species. Other natural products may also be of economic value from the wild sunflower species. A natural rubber concentration of 19 g/kg has been reported in the whole plant of wild perennial H. radula with more than 92% pure rubber. Polyphenol yields of wild sunflower biomass are moderate, with H. strumosus yielding 139 g/kg. Hydrocarbon yields for wild sunflower biomass are average for most species, with H. salicifolius having the highest yield of 16 g/kg. The sugars in the stalks and tubers of Jerusalem artichoke (H. tuberosus) have been suggested as a potential source for bioethanol production. Jerusalem artichoke has been evaluated for inulin and sugar yield from stalks, yielding 10.4 and 8.0 t/ha, respectively, while tubers yield 13.7 t/ha of inulin and 13.3 t/ha of fructose. Biomass production has also been investigated in Jerusalem artichoke. Dry matter forage yields of 3.0 to 9.9 t/ha and tuber yields of 2.8 to 12.8 t/ha have been reported. Further research will be needed to assess the potential use of wild species for industrial purposes through selection and breeding.

Rapeseed (canola) is the major Canadian oilseed and average annual production was 6,871,600 metric t for the 10-year period 1996-2005. Brassica napus is the only species grown, and only summer annual forms are cultivated in the short season areas of the western Canadian prairie. About 70% of the total production is exported, either as seed (50%) or oil (20%). We utilized inter-specific crosses between B. napus and related species to improve the disease resistance and seed quality of B. napus. We produced yellow-seed forms of B. napus from crosses with B. rapa and B. juncea which have higher seed oil content, and lower meal fiber content to improve the feed value of the meal. We also produced germplasm with high oleic/low linolenic acid content to improve the nutritional value of canola oil as well as its technological qualities for use in the production of solid fats without trans fatty acids. The content of saturated fats in canola oil was reduced to less than 5% of total fatty acids. Inter-specific methodology was also successful in the development of B. juncea mustard as an edible oilseed crop with high yield, disease resistance and seed quality for production in the semiarid regions of the Canadian prairie. This paper will describe the crossing approaches used to develop this germplasm and discuss future research activities for canola improvement.

The recent rapid increase of petrol price due to the rising world demand for energy and the rapid depletion of fossil fuels calls for a diversification of energy sources, with particular reference to liquid fuels, gasoline and diesel oil. Diesel fuel in particular is fundamental for human and trade transport. Biodiesel, produced by a simple processing of oil from animal fat and/or oilcrops, could represent an interesting alternative, both pure or mixed with diesel oil. Biodiesel remains interesting even when it becomes clear that it can not provide a complete substitution for diesel oil use. In tropical areas oil palm, cotton oil, etc. could represent valid sources of vegetable oil, while in temperate areas, rape, soybean and sunflower now rep resent possible adapted biodiesel producers. However, there is a need to identify other oil crop species, fall sown, not needing irrigation but exhibiting high potential oil productivity. Among the members of the genus Brassica, Brassica carinata, an allopolyploid species coming from natural crosses of B. nigra B. oleracea, originated in Ethiopia, could be of interest for biodiesel production. Being a semi-wild species, but domesticated for indehiscent pod, fall or spring seeded in our conditions, with good growth, Brassica carinata could be a candidate for biodiesel production. We introduced several lines/populations, selected with particular reference to winter survival (particularly in North and Central Italy), high biomass and seed production and good adaptation to marginal soils. The collection and selection program started in the 1990s, with lines obtained from ENEA, Koipesol, India, Germany, Netherlands, etc. After the preliminary screening for agronomic performance, several lines were identified and selected for increased seed and biomass production. The best-performing line, selected from a population coming from North India, was tested in north, central and south Italy, with interesting results. The line, now called “Sincron” for its synchronic ripening, should be seeded in the fall, after good soil preparation to ensure high resistance to win ter conditions, in order to profit from winter rains and from long growing cycle. In good conditions, Sincron reaches 1.50-1.70 m height, seed produc tion of 4.0-4.8 t/ha, seed oil content of 33%-35%, with high erucic acid content (47%) and good technological characteristics for biodiesel production. A program involving some 35.000 ha has been proposed in Sicily for production of both biodiesel and electric power from the biomass, while the presence of glucosinolates in the cake could be used for control of nematodes in greenhouses and protected cultivations, after the ban of methyl bromide.