During two growing seasons there were studied 11 sunflower breeding lines and their 30 analogues obtained via backcrossing, chemical mutagenesis and selected as natural mutants. The variability of such agronomic traits as crop yield, seed oil content, 1,000 seed weight, plant height, leaf and petiole size, number of leaves and branches, and head diameter was investigated. The traits of crop yield, leaf size, number of branches were the most variable, whereas the most stable were 1,000 seed weight, seed oil content, plant height, and the number of leaves. The influence of mutant genes which control ray flower color and shape, leaf color and shape, dwarfness, number of leaves and ray flowers, and shape of bracts on the manifestation of important agronomic traits was estimated. No negative impact of the genes of ray flower color and shape and leaf color was noticed. The gene of fringed leaf margin reduced plant height while the gene of erect petiole increased development of that trait. The genes of dwarfness can negatively influence seed oil content and 1,000 seed weight.
Sunflower is used for the production of oil, confectionery and animal feed. Birds are very fond of sunflowers and can be pests of sunflower crops, and are consumers of seeds. Sunflower poultry feed is an emerging market that determines the direction of breeding. Its development is based on the determination of bird preferences and the available variety of sunflower lines. This is what our research is devoted to. Experimental feeding of chickens with a mixture of sunflower seeds of different colours was carried out. Chickens have been found to prefer contrasting striped seeds with white and dark stripes more than others. The white colour of the seeds was eaten less than others. Studies of the genetics of sunflower colour allow us to distinguish two groups of lines by seed colour. The first has white seeds with the EwEwPP genotype, suitable for use in human confectionery and more protected from being eaten by wild birds in the fields. The second is striped seeds with the EstrEstrPP genotype, which can be fed whole seeds to birds. Donors of seed colour traits and other traits important for hybrid breeding were selected from the evaluated collection of sunflower lines. InK1039 line is a donor of small striped seeds and pollen fertility restoration. InK1587 line is a sterility fixer and donor of striped and early maturing seeds. To create hybrids with white seeds for human consumption and thus more resistant to ingestion by wild birds, white seed donors were isolated with KG9 to restore pollen fertility and I2K2218 in a pollen sterility fixer.
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