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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Sunflower and Plant Biology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #370421
Research Project: Genetic Enhancement of Sunflower Yield and Tolerance to Biotic Stress

Location: Sunflower and Plant Biology Research

Title: Registration of oilseed sunflower maintainer germplasm HA 488, with resistance to the red sunflower seed weevil

Author
item Degreef, Michael
item Prasifka, Jarrad
item Koehler, Brady
item Hulke, Brent

Submitted to: Journal of Plant Registrations
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/13/2020
Publication Date: 5/7/2020
Publication URL: https://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/7019838
Citation: DeGreef, M.G., Prasifka, J.R., Koehler, B.D., Hulke, B.S. 2020. Registration of oilseed sunflower maintainer germplasm HA 488, with resistance to the red sunflower seed weevil. Journal of Plant Registrations. 14:203-205. https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20035.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/plr2.20035

Interpretive Summary: Sunflower has several important insect pests that will eat seeds as they develop on the plant. While they can be controlled by insecticides, this method of control comes at a real cost to producers. There are also concerns around future bans of certain insecticides, which limits control options, as well as a lack of control options for organic producers. For this reason, there is a need for conventionally bred insect resistance in sunflower; in particular, to the red sunflower seed weevil, as it causes crop quality issues with confectionery sunflower seed production. Through conventional breeding, we were able to develop HA 488, which is the first sunflower line with high levels of resistance to the red sunflower seed weevil. This inbred line is available to the sunflower industry to use as a source of resistance, which will limit the costs of this pest to producers.

Technical Abstract: Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.), as a native crop, has numerous insect pests that cause economic damage to producers in the United States. The red sunflower seed weevil (Smicronyx fulvus LeConte) is a notable seed-infesting insect pest throughout the U.S. sunflower growing region that is controlled only by insecticides; therefore, growers would benefit from host-plant resistance to help mitigate the economic costs associated with infestation. HA 488 (Reg. No. _____; PI 691857) is a maintainer inbred germplasm developed by pedigree selection that provides resistance to the red sunflower seed weevil. HA 488 is as resistant to red sunflower seed weevil as the donor parent PI 431542, which was previously shown to be one of the most resistant sunflower lines in a diversity panel. HA 488 was released by the USDA-ARS, Fargo, ND, to fill the need for sources of host-plant resistance to important insect pests.