Development of sunflower fertility restorer lines with resistance to the prevalent in the Krasnodar region races of downy mildew

Sunflower is one of the most profitable crops in our country. Diseases are the serious problem on the way to get high yields on sunflower hybrids. Downy mildew caused by Plasmopam halstedii (Farl.) Berl. et de Toni belongs to the most dangerous diseases and widely spread in all the main sunflower production areas. The aim of our work was to develop sunflower fertility restorer lines with resistance to the prevalent in the Krasnodar region races of downy mildew. Researches were conducted on the fields of V.S. Pustovoit All-Russian Research Institute of Oil Crops (Krasnodar) from 2012 till 2018. Field and laboratory methods adopted for sunflower breeding were used. Foreign and Russian sunflower hybrids of different genetic origin and synthetics obtained on the base of Rf-lines crosses with different genes of resistance to downy mildew were used as parental material. New restorer line with resistance to the prevalent in the Krasnodar region races of downy mildew was developed by means of multiple self-pollination, evaluation and selection in the field and laboratory conditions.