Genes and sunflower yield | Geni i prinos suncokreta

One of the main directions in sunflower (Helianthus annus) breeding in the world and in Serbia is the creation of hybrids with high genetic potential for seed and oil yield with changed plant architecture, capable to adapt to the region for which they are created. Creating a defined hybrid model demands a choice of parental lines which posses the desired traits. Knowing the direction in plant breeding, the sunflower hybrid model, the process of hybrid creation, the use of heterosis, heritability, interspecies crossing, which has a special role in sunflower breeding because of a large number of wild relatives, as well as the gene effect, mode of inheritance of quantitative traits, interdependence of the examined morphophysiological traits makes breeding for the desired plant architecture and sunflower yield components easier. The described breeding methods are applied in breeding programs in order to get more information about the components of genetic variance, gene effect, combining abilities of the genotypes. The knowledge of inheritance of seed yield, seed quality, as well as important morphophysiological traits makes choice of parent lines possible. It has been noticed that the nonadditive component of the genetic variance appeared as the most common form of inheritance of the examined traits, thus making the sunflower breeding process easier. The differences in the acquired results can be explained by different plant materials used by different authors. It is important to find the traits that show connection to yield, so that the breeding for those traits at the same time is breeding for yield. The application of the path coefficient analysis has made it possible to determine the direct and indirect gene effects of the agronomically important traits for seed yield. The obtained highly positive direct effect of the petiole length, total leaf area per plant, plant height, head diameter, number of seeds per head and mass of 1000 seeds on seed yield per plant have shown that these traits are important selection criteria to which special attention should be paid when creating high yield sunflower hybrids.