ASPECTE PRIVIND ESTIMAREA GRADULUI DE STERILITATE A LINIILOR DE FLOAREA-SOARELUI

Maria DUCA, Angela PORT, Alexei LEVIŢCHI, Tudor ROTARU* LCŞ „Securitate Biologică” *AŞP „Magroselect” SRL (or. Soroca)

Abstract

Monitoring of the seed quality at different stages of plant breeding at sunflower represents a very important element
in obtaining high yield hybrids based on CMS-Rf genetic system. Sunflower represents a protandric plant with a single
terminal inflorescence which contains 700-3000 individual hermaphrodite flowers, exposed on the calathidium, making
manual emasculation almost impossible. That’s why the utilization of the male sterility was indispensable and necessary
for the obtaining of the high level of hybridization at all the stages of sunflower breeding. Wide utilization of maternal
lines, with cytoplasmic male sterility, and of paternal lines, with fertility restoring genes Rf, lead to the necessity to
observe the stability and homogeneity of parental genotypes. Thus, for the paternal genotypes it is important to verify the
presence and the stare of Rf genes, but maintaining male sterility is verified by the level of sterility control. Utilization
of PCR-based methods with specific primers allows controlling genotype quality.