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Research Article Open Access
S.V. Gontcharov*
Dynamics of Hybrid Sunflower Disease
Resistance
Abstract: Breeding for resistance to the main diseases is very important part of
sunflower history in Russia. The list of most important diseases is changed depend-
ing on the region and time. Traditionally, sunflower breeders pay more attention to
broomrape, downy mildew and Diaporthe stem canker in Krasnodar region. The aim
of our study was to evaluate dynamics for resistance of sunflower lines and hybrids
to the most important diseases in a breeding program of All-Russia Research
Institute of Oil Crops (VNIIMK) in Krasnodar in order to correct it. Experiments
were conducted at the Central Station of VNIIMK from 2000 till 2013. Released,
prospective and experimental sunflower hybrids and lines of VNIIMK breeding were
used as a material. Experimental design was randomized blocks with three replica-
tions. Field resistance was evaluated by specialists from the Immunology laboratory
of VNIIMK. Results of new experimental sunflower hybrids evaluation for resistance
to main diseases are shown. Increasing of some pathogens occurrence is noticed,
which requires taking more attention to them in the resistance breeding program.
These data can be used for breeding program improvement.
Keywords: sunflower, resistance, pathogen, breeding, hybrid, disease
DOI 10.1515/helia-2014-0008
Received April 14, 2014; accepted May 20, 2014
Introduction
Sunflower is the main oil crop in Russia. Breeding for resistance (or at least tolerance)
to diseases always considered to be the most important aim in sunflower breeding.
The list of most important diseases is changed depending on the region and time.
Traditionally, sunflower breeders pay more attention to broomrape, downy mildew
and Diaporthe stem canker in Krasnodar region. Rust, being one of the most
*Corresponding author: S.V. Gontcharov, Department of Genetics and Breeding,
Kuban State Agrarian University, Kalinina, 13, Krasnodar 350044, Russia, E-mail:
serggontchar@hotmail.com
HELIA 2014; 37(60): 99–104
© 2014, S.V. Gontcharov.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
important sunflower diseases previously was practically vanished after releasing of
resistant cultivars in 1960s. Similar situation was occurred with Diaporthe stem
canker, which was seems to destroy all the sunflower acreages in the southern
regions in Russia in 1997, but steadily decreased the pressure when susceptible
varieties were steadily replaced with “stay green”hybrids. Meanwhile susceptible
lines show its symptoms every year in the sunflower nurseries. Fusarium disease is
one of the most important one for many crops. But for sunflower it was earlier
considered to be of less importance or minor disease (Gulya et al., 1997). During
last years, it became a serious problem for sunflower crop in Russia (Antonova et al.,
2002). Special breeding program for resistance to Fusarium sp.startedatVNIIMKin
2001 year using the laboratory test developed in VNIIMK (Gontcharov et al., 2006).
As it is perfectly known, success in resistance breeding leads to disequili-
brium in the “host-parasite”system and stimulates parasite to evolve new races.
Varying climatic environments favor different pathogens in different years. All this
requires constant control of phytopathologic situation (Van der Plank, 1968).
The aim of our study was to evaluate dynamics for resistance of sunflower
lines and hybrids to the most important diseases in a breeding program of All-
Russia Research Institute of Oil Crops (VNIIMK) in Krasnodar in order to correct it.
Materials and methods
Experiments were conducted at the Central Station (Krasnodar) of All-Russia
Research Institute of Oil Crops (VNIIMK) from 2000 till 2013. Krasnodar region is
situated in the Southern part of Russia near the Black Sea. Climatic conditions
are very favorable here for sunflower production. Sunflower usually covers
about 0.4–0.5 million ha in this region.
Released, prospective and experimental sunflower hybrids of VNIIMK breed-
ing were used as a material. The number of evaluated hybrids varied from 250 to
500 from year to year. Most of the entries were tested during one or two years
only, only released hybrids (Kubanskiy 930, Jupiter, Triumph, Hermes and some
others) were evaluated every year. VNIIMK elite lines were used for observation
of field resistance to downy mildew also.
Experimental design was randomized blocks with three replications. Each
replication had four rows with 25 plants in each row. Field resistance was
evaluated by specialists from the Immunology laboratory of VNIIMK. For our
purpose, we registered incidence (%) of each disease in two ways: quantity of
entries (hybrids) with at least one plant infected by a particular disease and
maximum percentage of attacked plants on the most infected plot for each
disease. Disease severity was not analyzed in this study.
100 S.V. Gontcharov
Results and discussion
Field resistance of tested sunflower hybrids showed substantial differences for
majority of diseases during the period from 2000 to 2013. Results for the most
important sunflower diseases are presented below.
Downy mildew (Plasmopara halstedii Berl. et de Tony)
Previously symptoms of this disease were not registered on VNIIMK sunflower
hybrids in the trials. It was a result of traditional VNIIMK breeding methodology:
all elite restorer lines should be resistant to downy mildew (race 330). Situation
changed with appearance of new races for our region (mainly 730 and 770)
(Ivebor, 2009). From 2010 infected plants were registered every year. About a
half of all entries had at least one plant with downy mildew symptoms in the
hybrid trial in 2012 (Tables 1–2). Interesting that number of infected plants
among mother lines was significantly lower in comparison with restorer lines.
Meanwhile mother lines (cms-lines and maintainers) have no major genes for
downy mildew resistance and all restorer lines were resistant to the most
predominant race 330. Probably horizontal or field resistance of mother lines
appeared as a results of infected plants discarding during a breeding process. In
case of restorer lines, such breeding was impossible because of major resistance
gene effect. From 2004 breeding material is evaluated for resistance to the new
races of downy mildew at VNIIMK and resistant lines were developed. But only
one resistant to them sunflower hybrid (Legion) is released till now.
Table 1: Incidence of different diseases (attacked hybrids, %) in
the sunflower field trials during 2000–2012 years (Krasnodar)
Disease 2000 2004 2008 2012
Downy mildew 0.0 0.0 0.5 47.0
Diaporthe stem canker 42.5 20.5 18.5 25.8
Fusarium disease 15.3 19.8 40.5 100.0
Phoma black stem 29.8 42.1 40.5 45.5
Rhizopus head rot 10.2 13.5 15.6 19.6
Rust 0.0 0.0 1.5* 100.0
Charcoal rot 15.5 3.6 10.5 4.5
Bacterial blight ––– 71.2
Note: *Registered on confectionary hybrids only.
Dynamics of Hybrid Sunflower Disease Resistance 101
Broomrape (parasitic angiosperm Orobanche cumana Wallr.)
Field resistance evaluation to broomrape is not effective because crop rotation
system used in VNIIMK protect the soil from contamination by Orobanche seeds.
Only few broomrape plants could be found even in the restorer line nurseries,
although they have no major genes for resistance to broomrape. Evaluation is
made in the greenhouse and specially infected nursery only. Results were
described in the previous report (Gontcharov, 2009).
Sclerotinia white rot (Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary)
Head rot is very important disease but it is rather rare in Krasnodar region. Stalk
form of the disease is more usual and show no obvious differences between
genotypes. It was not registered in 2012. Frequency of damage is dependent on
environmental conditions mainly. To breed for resistance to this pathogen, it is
necessary to evaluate sunflower lines in other regions (more cold and humid) or
to use an artificial inoculation.
Diaporthe stem canker (Diaporthe helianthi Munt.-Cvet.)
In the end of 1990s, it was the most important disease in Krasnodar region. Then
its harmfulness was decreased greatly. But susceptible genotypes demonstrate
symptoms of Diaporthe stem canker every year. That means infection is readily
present in the field, so it is necessary to monitor the situation all the time,
especially taking in the account new species of Diaporthe registered on sun-
flower in the USA and Australia.
Table 2: Maximum registered incidence of different diseases (infected plants
per plot, %) in the sunflower field trials during 2000–2012 years (Krasnodar)
Disease 2000 2004 2008 2012
Downy mildew 0.0 0.0 5.6 12.0
Diaporthe stem canker 100.0 33.3 25.0 14.0
Fusarium disease 15.3 19.8 40.5 90.0
Phoma black stem 10.5 12.2 19.8 33.3
Rhizopus head rot 22.3 33.7 30.5 88.9
Rust 0.0 0.0 100.0 75.0
Charcoal rot 42.2 12.8 39.3 25.0
Bacterial blight –– –82.2
102 S.V. Gontcharov
Fusarium disease (Fusarium sp.)
Fusarium disease (Fusarium sp.) is registered on sunflower more and more often
during the last time. Prominent results were achieved in breeding for resistance
to it, but different forms and species of Fusarium which could attack sunflower
make these efforts much more complicated (Gontcharov et al., 2006). Individual
selection in a segregated sunflower population based on the combination of
artificial infection and field observation could improve situation with Fusarium
resistance. Infected plants were discovered on every hybrid in the trial in 2012,
and in one case 90% of plants on the plot were damaged. Severity was not very
high but tendency is obvious.
Rust (Puccinia helianthi Schw.)
Rust, being one of the most important sunflower pathogen previously was
practically vanished after releasing of resistant cultivars in 1960s. During a
long time, rust was observed on foreign sunflower hybrids only (predominantly
confectionary type or old samples from genetic collections). Now rust could be
found on the leaves of modern oil-type sunflower hybrids. In 2012, rust was
registered on all hybrids in the trial, though in a very small extent (Table 1). It is
possible that new races of rust appeared here.
Rhizopus head rot (Rhizopus sp.)
Rhizopus head rot (Rhizopus sp.) is quite common here, but usually from one to
three damaged heads were registered per plot. Some genotypes are very suscep-
tible to this pathogen and could be easily identified under field conditions and
discarded. Such technique is quite appropriate till now. If new aggressive races
will appear it would be necessary to start special breeding efforts. In 2012 about
20% of all entries were damaged, but only one hybrid was fully susceptible.
Bacterial blight
The frequency of bacterial diseases is increasing during the last years. More than
70% of all entries demonstrated symptoms of bacterial diseases in VNIIMK
hybrid trials in 2012. Up to 82.2% of infected plants were registered as a max-
imum incidence per plot. Previously bacterial blight was not considered to be a
problem and incidence was not calculated.
Dynamics of Hybrid Sunflower Disease Resistance 103
Other diseases
Other diseases such as charcoal rot (Macrophomina phaseolina), Verticillium wilt
(Verticillium dahliae) and Alternaria (Alternaria spp.) showed no significant
differences in harmfulness during the years. Contrary Phoma black stem
(Phoma macdonaldii) became a little bit more noticeable and could become a
problem in the future.
Conclusions
Sunflower hybrid trial showed substantial differences for field pathogen resis-
tance depends on year. Analysis of field resistance allows us to discover some
tendencies in dynamics of pathogen appearance during the period from 2000 to
2013. Fusarium disease became more common on sunflower from year to year,
so as bacterial blight. It requires paying more attention to these pathogens in
breeding programs. Rust was noticed on modern sunflower oil-type hybrids;
previously it was registered on confectionary hybrids only. Possible new races
appeared. New races of downy mildew forced to change sunflower hybrid
breeding program. In general, sunflower field resistance monitoring gives valu-
able information for pathogens dynamics.
Acknowledgments: The author is grateful to PhD. Antonova, T.S., head of
laboratory of Immunology and electrophoresis of VNIIMK and to her colleagues,
PhD. Araslanova, N.M. and PhD. Saukova, S.L. for the help.
References
Antonova, T.S., Araslanova, N.M., Saukova, S.L., 2002. A Harmfulness of sunflower disease
caused by Fusarium sp. in Krasnodar region. The Reports of Russian Academy Agricultural
Science 3: 6–8.
Gontcharov, S.V., 2009. Sunflower breeding for resistance to the new broomrape race in the
Krasnodar region of Russia. Helia 32(51): 75–80.
Gontcharov, S.V., Antonova, T.S., Saukova, S.L., 2006. Sunflower breeding for resistance to
Fusarium. Helia 29(45): 49–54.
Gulya, T., Rashid, K.Y., Masirevic, S.M., 1997. Sunflower diseases. In: Schneiter, A.A. (Ed.)
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104 S.V. Gontcharov
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