Sunflower has historically been an important crop in Central Queensland. In recent years the sunflower area in Central Queensland has been reduced due to low and variable prices and increased competition from alternate summer crops. Issues of tall persistent stubble that provides little ground cover and a lack of in-crop weed control options have also contributed to declining popularity of sunf...

BACKGROUND Respiratory allergy triggered by pollen allergens is increasing at an alarming rate worldwide. Sunflower pollen is thought to be an important source of inhalant allergens. Present study aims to identify the prevalence of sunflower pollinosis among the Indian allergic population and characterizes the pollen allergens using immuno-proteomic tools. METHODOLOGY Clinico-immunological te...

Traditional plant breeding is often limited by the genetic diversity within a species. The use of biotechnology allows introducing into a plant, specific traits that come from the same or another plant species. In this paper, we focus on tissue culture of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L., Asteraceae), particularly related to rooting transgenic sunflower plantlets. Sunflower is notoriously recalc...

Sunflower is an important oilseed crop in India earning lot of revenue. Research on nutritional aspects relating to sunflower cultivation is abundant and is documented comprehensively. However, the role of major nutrients on crop physiology and the effect of these nutrients on growth and yield of oilseed crops in general and sunflower in particular are scanty. Particularly, the role of phosphor...

Sunflower plant (Helianthus annuus) is a miraculous oil seed crop which is cultivated globally for its seeds. Sunflower seeds, a nutrient dense food has been found to have a potential role in chronic inflammatory conditions, bacterial and fungal infections, cardiovascular diseases, skin diseases and even cancers. These benefits of sunflower seeds are attributed to the presence of phytosterols, ...

Yield of some crops performs better in the intercropping than sole cropping system. Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) canopy is fragile providing a lot of ground cover, hence, therefore, has a great potential to intercrop with a short stature and/or duration crop making it comparable for the better net return in a cropping system. Field experiment was, therefore, expressly conducted to study the...

Classical biological control programs often target a pest's region of origin as a likely source for new biological control agents. Here, we use this approach to search for biological control agents of the sunflower stem weevil (Cylindrocopturus adspersus LeConte), an economically important pest of commercial sunflower. We conducted surveys of weevil natural enemy diversity and abundance across ...

Due to a specific structure of its main organs (root, stem, leaves, and head), sunflower can be successfully grown on marginal soils and in semiarid conditions, and it is more resist‐ ant to abiotic stresses, than other field crops. Unfortunately, it is very sensitive to biotic stresses. In sunflower breeding for resistance to abiotic stresses, the greatest progress has been made in selection f...

Conventional karyotypes and various genetic linkage maps have been established in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L., 2n = 34). However, the relationship between linkage groups and individual chromosomes of sunflower remains unknown and has considerable relevance for the sunflower research community. Recently, a set of linkage group-specific bacterial /binary bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC/B...

Capitate glandular trichomes (CGT), one type of glandular trichomes, are most common in Asteraceae species. CGT can produce various secondary metabolites such as sesquiterpene lactones (STLs) and provide durable resistance to insect pests. In sunflower, CGT-based host resistance is effective to combat the specialist pest, sunflower moth. However, the genetic basis of CGT density is not well und...