Comparison of populations of helianthus Argophyllus and H. debilis SSP. cucumerifolius and their hybrids from the African coast of the Indian Ocean and the Usa using molecular markers

SUMMARY A comparison of H. argophyllus and H. debilis ssp. cucumerifolius populations from the coast of Mozambique and Eastern South Africa and Texas, USA was carried out at Udine University (Italy). American populations were supplied by the USDA Northern Crop Science Lab, while the populations from Africa were collected over several years by Udine researchers. Populations comparison were based on morphological traits and nuclear and chloroplastic SSR markers of plants grown in pots in a growth chamber. All populations are of potential interest to breeding programs as well as for evolutionary studies. Hybrid populations involved both species and for some African swarms possibly H. annuus. For H. argophyllus, there is evidence of a bottleneck effect. Material coming from Texas showed a lower number of alleles in nuclear SSR compared with the African material.