118373_Vol_2.qxp 8/16/04 10:08 AM Page 699 Wild Species and Genetic Resources HYBRIDIZATION OF CULTIVATED SUNFLOWER HELIANTHUS ANNUUS WITH WILD ANNUAL SPECIES HELIANTHUS BOLANDERI, HELIANTHUS NEGLECTUS, AND HELIANTHUS PETIOLARIS Miroslava M. Hristova-Cherbadzi, Department of Cytogenetics, Institute of Genetics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract The species H. bolanderi Gray, H. neglectus Heiser and H. petiolaris ssp. petiolaris Nuttall were hybridized with the cultivated sunflower H. annuus L. The crossability rate was comparatively high. Seeds and hybrid plants were obtained from both directions of crossing. The F1 plants had an intermediate type of heritability, but they strongly resembled the wild parent for the most important biomorphological characters. The hybrid nature of individual F1 plants was confirmed through cytological and RAPD investigations. As a result of self-pollination, sib-pollination of the F1 plants and backcrossing to cultivated sunflower, F2, BC1, third and fourth hybrid progenies were obtained. It was established that the three species carried Rf genes for CMS PET1. Some of the obtained hybrid forms were included in a program for developing lines for heterosis breeding in sunflower. Introduction There are numerous and various investigations on the participation of annual species in hybridization with cultivated sunflower and the transfer of useful characters to cultivated sunflower (Satsyperov, 1916; Heiser, 1949; Putt and Sackston, 1957, 1963; Pustovoit, 1960; Leclercq, 1969; Pustovoit, 1975; Morized et al., 1984; Jan and Chandler, 1985; Chandler et al., 1986; Jan et al., 1989; Vannozzi et al., 1990; Atlagic et al., 1995; Christov et al., 1996). A large part of the results obtained have theoretical and applied significance.