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WIKIPEDIA ASSIGNMENT I
Topic: Evolution of sunflower to increase yield, oil content and disease resistance.

Annotated Bibliography

Christov, M. 2012. Contribution of interspecific hybridization to sunflower breeding. Helia. [accessed 2014 September 13]; 35(57): 37- 46. Doi: 10.2298/hel1257037c. http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/1018-1806/2012/1018-18061257037C.pdf

This paper researches how to obtain better sunflower population, which are resistant to diseases, parasite and are able to obtain a higher production of oil using interspecific hybridization. From this paper I will be able to see what traits are looked at, to contribute to an increase in oil production.

Gontcharov, SV. Antonova, TS. and Saukova, SL. 2006. Sunflower breeding for resistance to fusarium. Helia [accessed 2014 September 14]; 29 (45): 49-54. http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/1018-1806/2006/1018-18060645049G.pdf

Over the past few years, pathogens such as fusarium which were deemed as a minor pathogen before has now became a huge threat. Damaging up to 80% of sunflower in 2006. In this research paper, it takes us through the development of breeding the sunflowers to increase its resistance to pathogen fusarium, which in turn would help increase sunflower survival or fitness.

McClure, MA. Allen, FL. Johnson, RD and Heatherly, LG. 2009. Sunflower: An alternative crop for Tennessee Producers - Production guidelines and Tennessee hybrid trials. The University of Tennessee [accessed 2014 September 14]. https://utextension.tennessee.edu/publications/Documents/SP721.pdf In this research paper, we learn about the increase in demand for crops deriving from sunflower. In this paper we take a look at the development and progression of Tennessee’s sunflower hybrid trial. We will be able to look at which traits were specifically targeted and if it did bring about the desired result such as increase productivity or increase in oil content.

Hladni, N and Miklic, V. 2012. Old and new trends of using genetic resources in sunflower plant breeding with the aim of preserving biodiversity. Institute of Field and Vegetable crops. [accessed 2014 September 13]; http://semenarska.rs/UNS-PSU/radovi/1/10%20HLADNI%20MIKLIC%20109-120.pdf

This research paper introduces to us the concept of wild and cultivated sunflower. It explains that wild sunflowers have better resistance to diseases and insects. Therefore in this research it studies the breeding of wild sunflower with cultivated sunflower to encourage and preserve genetic variability. And if successful, it will lead to an increase fitness of the population.

Koff, JP and Link, R. 2014. Sunflower for biodiesel production. Tennessee State University. [accessed 2014 September 13]; http://www.tnstate.edu/extension/documents/Biodiesel-Sunflower.pdf

This paper provides us with statistics that we are interested in – amount of sunflower oilseed, which was harvest in 2012, and statistics from 4-5 years before. From here we will be able further investigate what was done to the sunflower, be it method of farming, hybridization, types of soil used etc and how such changes has influenced the production of the sunflower oilseed.

WIKIPEDIA ASSIGNMENT II
Web address of article edited: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_oil

3 suggestions:

==Information that could be included=-

You have a great article going here but may I suggest including some of these information to further improve it, 1. Sunflower oil comprises 7.8% of the world's vegetable oil consumption. Ranking it the fourth leading oil in the world.  2. Over the years, there has been an increase in demand for crops from sunflower including Sunflower oil. 3. Methods have been made to increase sunflowers resistance to pathogens so as to increase sunflowers population. More sunflowers, more sunflower oil to harvest. Chexi.1 (talk) 21:12, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Sentence and citation added: In recent years, there has been an increase in demand for sunflower crops such as sunflower oil. Measures such as, hybridization of sunflower breeding to increase sunflower oil production, has been introduced to meet such demand.

WIKIPEDIA ASSIGNMENT III
No response/reply was seen for edit and comment added to page.

Final Paper
Introduction Helianthus annuus or sunflowers are crops that possess various different uses that many people are not aware of. Today, they are mostly grown in large scales for two main purposes: 1. Sunflower oil used for cooking and biodiesel and 2. Non-oil confectionary use such as human snack or birdseed mixes. Different sunflower seeds differ phenotypically and in content - different seeds hold or contain different levels of oil and proteins. Oil seed, used for cooking oil, are generally smaller in size with a black casing. The non-oil seeds, used for human consumption and birdseed mix, are usually larger in size with a striped case. The Helianthus annuus is one of the few crops that originated from the United States, primarily southwestern United States, with archaeological evidence dating back to 4000 years ago. However, sunflower only started gaining commercial popularity and use in the 1960s. (Koff and Link. 2014) Sunflower oils, apart from being used as cooking oil, are also a great source of biodiesel. With the depletion of fossil fuels, there is a change in direction for alternative sources of energy. Thus, explaining the increased interest in sunflower oilseed crop demand in recent two to three years - “sunflower oil imports increased sharply to 1,32,491 tonnes from 48,498 tonnes” (“The Economic Times.” 2014) ; “From October 2013 to March 2014 sunflower oil exports are up more than 2,000 metric tons (MT) – from 10,681 MT last year to 12,717 MT this year, according to NSA.” (Conlon M. 2014). At 7.8 percent, the sunflower oil is the fourth leading oil consumed in the world, following behind palm, soybean and rapeseed oil. According to USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, as of the year 2012, United States had harvested 1.6 million acres of oilseed sunflower. With North Dakota having the largest acres of sunflower harvested for oil and non-oil seeds (Koff and Link. 2014).

The Different Types of Oilseed Sunflowers Oilseed sunflowers contain 38 to 44 percent oil and 18 to 25 percent protein. The different type of oilseed sunflower depends on the type of oil it produces. There are generally three types, Linoleic, NuSun (mid-oleic) and High oleic (Johnson et al. 2005). Linoleic oilseeds have a low amount of saturated fats, 11%, and are usually used as low-saturated cooking oil. NuSun or mid-oleic oilseeds, at less than 10%, contains less saturated fats than the Linoleic seeds and is deemed as the healthier oil. Therefore, it is the sunflower oilseed that is predominantly grown in the sunflower farms. The mid-oleic oils do not get hydrogenated which gives it a longer shelf life. High oleic seeds are “special oil” that are very low in saturated fats (close to the mid-oleic) carries a higher amount of monounsaturated fats compared to the mid-oleic. Mid-oleic has about 65% while the high oleic has 85%. High oleic seeds are usually grown by contract on consumer demand (Johnson et al. 2005). Oils high in unsaturated fats, such as mid-oleic or high oleic, produce biodiesel that are of better quality. This is due to the chemical structure of the oil, which helps to reduce coagulation or clumping in cold temperatures. Sunflower oils generally have a higher unsaturated fat content compared to soybean oil and would be a better option for biodiesel (Johnson et al. 2005). With an increasing demand and interest in sunflower oilseeds, scientists have been looking and developing methods to increase yield and sunflower oil content. Because of the limited genetic diversity present in the cultivated sunflowers, they are not able to generate resistance to the diseases that post a threat to their survival. The only means of adding a new genetic option is by breeding with wild (or other) species, mutagenesis and or tissue culture (Encheva et al. 2008).

Hybridization Hybridization involves the crossbreeding of different types and species, creating new genetic recombination and ultimately new hybrid species with higher fitness. One of the very first hybridization experiment (of sunflowers), Breeding For Resistance To Fusarium, was first introduced by, All-Russia Research Institute of Oil Crops – Russia, in hopes to create a new hybrid species that had resistance to Fusarium. Fusarium is a type of pathogen that, over the years has grown to be a major pathogen and threat to the sunflowers, causing high levels of damage and loss of sunflower crops, some as extensive as 80 percent of damaged plants (Gontcharov et al. 2006). Apart from Fusarium, downy mildew is another disease that attacks the sunflowers. Sunflowers susceptibility to downy mildew is particular high due to the way it has to be planted and grown. Broomrape is a parasite that attacks the root of the sunflower and may cause serious damage as high as 100 percent (Encheva et al. 2008). This hybridization experiment was initiated as herbicides were seen to be less and less effective. This showed a possibility of the red queen hypothesis in motion, as the pathogens continuously evolved, creating resistance to the herbicide to outlive and survive. Similar to a lot of experiments, the outcome and results of the experiment were unpredictable. It had an unexpected turn and resulted in sunflowers that had resistance to the pathogen Fusarium and an increased in oil content. For this experiment four groups of sunflowers – cultivated, wild, perennial or annual sunflowers, were used to create four different hybrid combinations. These combinations were done based on the different flowers’ pathogenic resistance. The crossbreeding was done with promising inbred lines, which had resistance to different pathogens. Three out of four of the combinations had sunflowers that were double crossed for example; F3 R-14 x (VK-591 x VK-539) while the last group was just a cross - F3 VK-680 x O.P. variety leader. The two-day-old crossbred sunflower plantlets were then exposed to dishes of two different types of Fusarium pathogen culture – F. oxysporum var. orthoceras and F. sporotrihiella var. sporotrichioides. These hybrids were then incubated in a moist chamber. After which they were tested and evaluated and the best plant was cultivated in the greenhouse till maturity, the plant self-pollinates and the seeds get collected for plantation in the fields where they are further evaluated. As the years pass, only the healthy ones get selected and cultivated. Ultimately, the hybrids showed higher fitness than those, which were not crossbred (Gontcharov et al. 2005). As we know in evolution, self-pollination (inbreeding) causes the frequency of heterozygotes to decrease while increasing the homozygotes. In many cases, this is a negative outcome as as harmful alleles get expressed in homologous condition thus decreasing its fitness. However, this experiment resulted in an opposite conclusion, showing an increase in fitness. This was possible as when the sunflowers were crossbred, the species had a combination of alleles of higher fitness, which were then selected for and got expressed resulting in off springs that had higher resistance. (Skoric et al. 2000, 2007 ; Hladni et al. 2007). Today hybridization experiments continue and are carried a step further and with different interspecific hybridization done to see which combination would entail higher resistance and high seed oil content and even catered to specific different programs eg. confectionary (Gontcharov et al. 2005 ; Hladni et al. 2012).

Induction of mutagenesis Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science however, used a different approach to increase resistance to downy mildew and parasite broomrape and also to increase seed and oil yield in the sunflowers. This approach consisted of combining the classic method of crossbreeding with an induction of mutagenesis to create a mutant sunflower line. Mutagenesis or the introduction of mutation helps to introduce new genotypic variation. The induction of mutagenesis was more favorable in tissue cultures and was done during the immature zygotic embryos stage. By doing so at this stage in development provided a higher success of genetic variability and selection process as the cells have yet to be differentiated. Some of the immature zygotic embryos were, in addition, exposed to gamma irradiation or ultrasound, by doing so it increases and encourages mutant development even more (Encheva et al. 2008). The new mutant line was divided into two groups; one group was grown out on the field while the other was grown in the laboratory. The plants were selected based on the height, oil content and resistance to downy mildew and broomrape. The new mutant line displayed an increase of 11.2 percent in oil content and was later concluded that exposure to ultrasound led to the genetic increase in oil content. The sunflowers showed great increase in height after a year into the study. Another amazing result that came from this experiment was that the mutant sunflower line showed a 100% resistance to both the diseases. Because the induction of the mutant was done in the immature zygotic embryo, it changed the development of the sunflower. It was able to develop traits and characteristics that made it resistant to the most problematic diseases. This method also enabled the hybridization time to be shortened, the sunflower was able to reproduce at a faster pace than with other methods (Encheva et al. 2008 ; Hladni and Miklic . 2012).

Conclusion Today most of the sunflower seeds available and used by producers (farmers) are hybrid seeds. Producers are willing to pay more on sunflower seeds/seedlings that are resistant to pathogens. Also less money would be spent on preventive measures as there will be less damaged plants and this could potentially lead to an increase in acres size as farmers now have the ability to plant and manage more sunflowers. Classic methods such as hybridization and new methods such as mutagenesis has been proven successful to producing genetic combination of higher fitness that help develop resistance and even increase in oil content, catering to the industry demand. However, this is not the end of the evolutionary methods for sunflowers as we continue to see new developments being produced.

Wikipedia Assignment IV
Page Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helianthus_annuus

Sunflower Hybrids In today's market, most of the sunflower seeds provided or grown by farmers are hybrids. Hybrids or hybridized sunflowers are produced by crossbreeding different types and species of sunflower, for example crossbreeding cultivated sunflowers with wild species of sunflowers. By doing so, new genetic recombinations are obtained and ultimately leads to the production of new hybrid species. These hybrid species generally have a higher fitness and carry properties or characteristics that farmers look for i.e. resistance to pathogens.

Threats and Diseases One of the major threat that Sunflowers face today is Fusarium. Fusarium is a filamentous fungi that is found largely in soil and plants. It is a pathogen that over the years has caused increasing amount of damage and loss of sunflower crops, some as extensive as 80 percent of damaged crops.

Apart from Fusarium, Downy Milder is another disease that sunflowers are susceptible to. Its susceptibility to Downy Mildew is particular high due to the sunflower's way of growth and development. Sunflower seeds are generally planted only an inch deep in the ground. When such shallow planting is done in moist and soaked earth or soil, it increases the chances of diseases such as Downy Mildew.

Another major threat to sunflower crops is Broomrape. Broomrape is a parasite that attacks the root of the sunflower and cause more extensive damage than the Fusarium. Broomrape may cause damage, as high as 100percent, to the sunflower crops.

Page Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower_oil#Uses

Sunflower oil is also a great source of biodiesel. Mid-oleic and High oleic sunflower oils are able to produce better quality biodiesel. Due to the high levels of unsaturated fats, there is lesser coagulation and clumping in cold temperatures.