Vol. 10, Issue 10 (2021)

Author(s):
Harshavardan J Hilli and Amandeep

Abstract:
Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is the world's second-most-important oilseed crop after soybean. It belongs to the Asteraceae/ Compositae family and has a high amount of unsaturated fatty acids and no cholesterol, so it provides a lot of oil with a good quality. Because of the understanding of mating systems and the possibilities of controlled hybridization within and among species, as well as the naturally existing variability in the species, great advances in sunflower genetics have been made. New methodological techniques, including as molecular mapping of crucial agronomical traits and the establishment of advanced-backcross and introgression lines, have provided significant tools for sunflower crop improvement and understanding domestication processes. The overall goal of sunflower breeding is to produce high-oil-yielding, drought-resistant lines with a single capitulum and a better root system. It is apparent that sunflower breeding results were based on traditional breeding-genetic procedures, and that no significant shift in the faster introduction of valuable features in cultivars has been made. It is undeniable that traditional breeding will not help to boost output in the future. As a result, tremendous progress in molecular genetics and the utilisation of molecular marker techniques is being made. As a result, using a combination of traditional breeding and modern plant biotechnology technologies, such as marker-Assisted Selection, for sunflower breeding could be beneficial.