MATERNAL DETERMINATION OF OIL CONTENT IN SUNFLOWER SEEDS

Abstract

Two cultivated sunflowers (‘Primavera’ and ‘AN-3’), a low oil content wild subspecies (Helianthus annuus ssp. texanus, ‘Ac8’) and their inter-subspecific crosses, were tested under the assumption that the oil content is maternally determined. Significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) were found between achenes from reciprocal crosses, whereas in individual crosses the oil percentage was not different (P > 0.05) from their respective female parents. In all cases, the oil content was reduced when the wild sunflower was used as female parent, thus showing that seed oil content is mainly determined by maternal inheritance. Therefore, the presence of the wild subspecies close to production plots of cultivated sunflowers would not affect the oil percentage in the harvested seed, and pollination control should not be necessary.