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...

IVANOVA, P., V. CHALOVA, L. KOLEVA, I. PISHTIYSKI and M. PERIFANOVA – NEMSKA, 2012. Optimization of protein extraction from sunflower meal produced in Bulgaria. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 18: 153-160 Sunflower meal obtained after defatting of sunflower seeds is a by-product, which has the potential to serve as an attractive source for the preparation of protein isolates for food purposes. Protein ex...

Identifying the best inbred combinations for the development of commercial hybrid of sunflower remains the main challenge to sunflower breeders. In the present research the level of heterosis of F1 hybrids, genetic diversity of parental lines based on SSR markers, as well as its connection with specific combining ability of sunflower were studied. Ten sunflower elite inbred lines (3 restorer li...

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) oil remains under-utilised albeit one of the major seed oils produced world-wide. Moreover, the high oleic sunflower varieties make the oil attractive for applications requiring high temperature processes and those targeting the C=C double bond functionality. Herein an overview of the recent developments in olefin metathesis of sunflower-based feedstocks is pres...

The biology and behavior of the longhorned beetle Dectes texanus LeConte (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) was studied on two host plants that suffer economic losses from this pest; sunflower, Helianthus annuus, and soybean, Glycines max. Reciprocal crosses of D. texanus collected from the two plants all produced viable progeny, indicating that conspecific insects attack both crops. Pupae from soybean...

Lentz et al. (1) cite linguistic evidence supporting their hypothesis that Helianthus annuus was domesticated in Mesoamerica in pre-Columbian times. This consists, in part, of a list of names for sunflower collected from speakers of 14 contemporary native languages. They conclude that the fact that terms for sunflower in 11 of these languages do not phonologically resemble Spanish words for sun...

OBJECTIVE This study was to evaluate the sunflower cake and enzymatic complex fed to broilers from 22 to 42 d of age. METHODS In a completely randomized design, a total of 850 birds were allotted in a 2×5 factorial scheme (with and without enzymatic complex) and five inclusion levels (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%) of sunflower cake. There were 5 replications and 17 birds in each experimental unit. D...