Disease Tolerance in Helianthus petiolaris: A Genetic Resource for Sunflower Breeding

Abstract

Argentina is a major sunflower producer in the world, with crop acreage of 2−2.7 million ha in the last four years. Sunflower crop yield is often influenced by sanitary constraints, mainly fungal pathogens. Helianthus petiolaris is a wild species native to North America established in central Argentina displays a high tolerance to a number of fungal diseases and insects. Controlled crosses of this species with sunflower demonstrated that H. petiolaris constitutes a valuable genetic variability source for sunflower breeding to improve tolerance to rust (Puccinia helianthi), white rust (Albugo tragopogonis), verticillium wilt (Verticillium dahliae), powdery mildew (Erisiphe sp.) and the sunflower moth (Rachiplusia nu). This places H. petiolaris in an outstanding position as a genetic resource since different important traits could be transferred to the crop through interspecific hybridization.