Sources, trait-specific collections, and donors for sunflower breeding

To address the challenge of developing competitive domestic sunflower hybrids adapted to changing environmental conditions, it is essential to actively incorporate new source material into breeding programs. This source material is available in the VIR collection, which contains 2,300 sunflower accessions in the permanent catalog. One of the target indicators of the Federal Scientific and Technical Program for Agricultural Development for 2017-2030 is achieving a level of self-reliance in seeds for domestic sunflower hybrids of at least 75% by 2030. In order to select source material for breeding programs on developing heterotic hybrids and to actively incorporate them into studies, it is necessary to have a comprehensive information on the most potentially in-demand accessions and a sufficient amount of seeds of these accessions in the active collection. This article presents the information on sunflower accessions provided upon request in 2020-2025. This article presents information on sunflower accessions submitted upon request in the period 2020-2025, and an analysis of estimated data on the sunflower gene pool obtained in the Krasnodar Region at the Kuban Experimental Station – a branch of VIR for the period 2019-2025. The trait-specific collections supplied with additional information on the data obtained using diagnostic DNA markers have been compiled as proposals to recipients of the collection materials. The article presents sources of early maturity and ultra-early maturity of sunflower, sources of short stems, large fruits, donors of resistance to downy mildew, including samples with pyramids of resistance genes, early maturing lines - carriers of the pollen fertility restoration gene Rf1, as well as samples possessing a complex of economically valuable traits, for example, a combination of early maturity, short stems or large fruits with the ability to restore pollen fertility CMS PET1. The established active collection includes trait-specific collections for dwarfness: 40 lines with plant height of up to 80 cm, and for large seed size: 90 accessions for breeding domestic cultivars and hybrids for confectionery purposes. This information is intended to facilitate breeders in selecting the necessary source material during the application process.

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