Impact of cytoplasmic male sterile sources on seed yield and yield components in sunflower

Abstract

In order to study the influence of different alloplasmic male sterile lines on quantitative characters, three alloplasmic male sterile lines of the inbred line 852 were developed. The three different CMS sources used are CMS 852A (H.petiolaris), FMS 852A (H.petiolaris ssp. petiolaris) and IMS 852A (H.annuus ssp. lenticularis). These three lines were crossed to three restorers Acc. Nos. 1229, 232 and TUB 365 producing 9 hybrids (3 hybrids in three different sources). Similarly inbred line IB24A in two backgrounds FMS IB24A and IMS IB24A were crossed to four restorer lines 1229, 232, Tub 365 and 346 producing another set of 8 hybrids. These 17 hybrids along with their parents were evaluated during rainy season in the field by following randomized complete block design with three replications. Observations were recorded on seven quantitative characters. The different CMS sources did not significantly influence the traits such as plant height, days to maturity head diameter, percent seed set, test weight and seed yield per plant. Thus alloplasmic hybrids were uniform suggesting that the new CMS sources can be commercially exploited like classical source with out any negative effect. However, in case of seed oil content the CMS source from lenticularis showed superiority over the classical cytoplasm by producing hybrids with significantly higher oil content. Therefore, these new male sterility sources can replace the classical source with added advantage.