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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Crop Improvement and Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #224572
Title: Standard Operating Protocol for Growing Transgenic Sunflower Plants in Contained Environments

Author
item PEARSON, CALVIN - COLORADO STATE UNIV
item RATH, DONNA - COLORADO STATE UNIV
item McMahan, Colleen
item CORNISH, KATRINA - YULEX CORPORATION
item WHALEN, MAUREEN

Submitted to: Crop Management at www.cropmanagement.org
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/15/2008
Publication Date: 9/10/2008
Citation: Pearson, C.H., Rath, D.J., Mcmahan, C.M., Cornish, K., Whalen, M.C. 2008. Standard Operating Protocol for Growing Transgenic Sunflower Plants in Contained Environments. Crop Management at www.cropmanagement.org. 10.1094/CM-2008-0910-01-PS. Available: http://plantmanagementnetwork.org/pub/cm/perspective/2008/protocol/.

Interpretive Summary: The objective of this article is to present the standard operating protocol (SOP) we developed and have used for several years for growing transgenic sunflower plants in controlled, contained environments. This SOP may be of assistance to other researchers who work with transgenic plants when preparing their own SOP. A resource we found useful in developing our SOP was Adair et al. (2001). Our SOP described in this article has been modified to include additional background information and descriptions of our operation to tailor it to the readership of this publication.

Technical Abstract: Biotechnology provides the tools to develop industrial products for modern society that would not be possible in any other way (Brownback, 1993). A biotechnological approach to improve sunflower was initiated in 2001 in a collaborative research project that involved genetic transformation of sunflower. Development of transgenic sunflowers creates concern about the possible flow of transgenes into wild sunflower populations, where these populations might be genetically altered in a detrimental way (Arias and Rieseberg, 1994; Whitton, et al., 1997; Faure, et al., 2002; Reagon and Snow, 2006). Thus, pollen from transgenic sunflowers must be contained to prevent the hybridization of transgenic sunflower with wild sunflower. Concerns about biotechnology and gene flow from transgenic crops into their wild relatives have been studied and discussed by numerous researchers and organizations including Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (2001); Daniell, H. (2002); Ellstrand et al. (1999); Ellstand (2002), and Wolfenbarger (2002). A comprehensive risk assessment and mitigation plan includes the physical containment of transgenic plants and their pollen. The objective of this article is to present the standard operating protocol (SOP) we developed and have used for several years for growing transgenic sunflower plants in controlled, contained environments.