“Sunflower Oil: Breeding Approaches for Improvement”

UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, RAICHUR

College of Agriculture, Raichur

Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding

Master’s Seminar-Ⅱ

On

“Sunflower Oil: Breeding Approaches for Improvement”

IS IT POSSIBLE TO CONVERT SUNFLOWER OIL INTO A SOURCE OF LOW

CHOLESTROL VEGETABLE OIL..!!

Yes, the Sunflower oil is most desirable for its oil content and quality because it contain

number of unsaturated (oleic acid and linoleic acid), as well as saturated fatty acid (palmitic

acid and stearic acid). Oil with more unsaturated fatty acids is preferred as they lower the

cholesterol content in human body. So by identifying sunflower genotypes with high oleic acid

content we can convert sunflower oil into a source of low cholesterol vegetable oil (Nagarathna

et al., 2011).

The country needs 25 million tonnes of edible oils to meet its requirements at the current

consumption rate 19kg/person/year. However less than half of their requirement is produced

domestically and 55-60% is imported costing approximately 70,000crores. Hence blending of

primary and secondary sources of edible oil is allowed in India with a proper safety standard to

balance demand and supply.

India is in 18 th position in the production of sunflower in the world with the production

of 0.10 million tonnes of sunflower oil and also we are the major importer of sunflower oil in

world. So there is a need for improving oil yield potential of Indian sunflower cultivars. By

following certain breeding strategies and with the augmentation of trait specific germplasm

lines we can improve oil yield of Indian sunflower cultivars (DVVOF Report, 2019).

Breeding methods such as conventional methods, inbred line development, population

development, mutation breeding, marker assisted selection and certain in-vitro technique like

protoplast fusion, transgenic lines can be used to develop sunflower lines with high oil content

with good quality parameters ( Rauf, 2019).

SSR markers were to identify the Best Parent and crosses for high oleic acid content and

also marker associated with high and low oleic acid content. Out of 5 markers used only one

marker N1-3F showed polymorphism between high and low oleic acid genotypes. Genotypes

containing high-oleic acid were found in 3 CMS, 4 restorer, and 7 lines in derived crosses and

confirmed it by using N1-3F marker and also chromatogram (Tilak et al., 2018).

Nagarathna et al., (2011) identified high oleic acid genotypes and the parental lines for

heterosis breeding programme. They used 350 genotypes and conducted PCR analysis using

microsatellite marker chosen from the patent obtained by Berville et al., 2009 and also conducted

fatty acid profiling using gas chromatography method. They identified 8 RHA lines, 16 cms lines

and 21 germplasm lines having high oleic acid content.

Baydar et al., (2005) evaluated the changes in the contents of oil, fatty acids and total

tocopherol of sunflower seeds obtained from different maturity stages and positions on the head.

They sown AS-503 cultivar and collected the seed samples from different maturity stage and also

different position on flower and analyzed the sample for oil content, fatty acid and tocopherol

content. They observed changes in oil content with stage of maturity, fatty acid and tocopherol

content with both stage of maturity and position of seed on head.

At present scenario due to abrupt change in the weather condition area of production of

sunflower goes on decreasing. To meet the huge demand for edible oil in our country breeding

for high oil content, better oil quality and abiotic stress tolerant line is the best strategy. Along

with that sunflower breeding will be greatly facilitated by new molecular techniques such as

whole genome association mapping and genome editing through CRISPR/Cas9 technology. By

using these advanced technologies in sunflower breeding we can help our country to meet its

need.

REFERENCE:
Baydar, H. and Erbas, S., 2005, Influence of seed development and seed position on oil, fatty
acids and total tocopherol contents in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.). Turk J Agric
For., 29(3):179-186.

Berville, A., Hu, J., Seiler, G. and Kole, C., 2009, Oil composition variations. In Genetics,
genomics and breeding of sunflower. Science Publisher., 65:253-277.

DVVOF Report., 2019, Commodity profile of edible oil for September-2019. Department of
Food and public distribution, Bangalore., 3pp.

Nagarathna, T. K., Shadakshari, Y. G. and Ramanappa, T. M., 2011, Molecular analysis of
sunflower (Helianthus annuus L) genotypes for high oleic acid using microsatellite
markers. Helia., 34(55):63–68.

Rauf, S., 2019, Breeding Strategies for Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) Genetic
Improvement. Advances in Plant Breeding Strategies: Industrial and Food Crops., 637-
673pp.

Tilak, I. S., Kisan, B., Goud, I. S et al., 2018, Biochemical and molecular characterization of
parents and its crosses for high oleic acid content in Sunflower (Helianthus annuus
L). Int J Curr Microbiol App Sci., 7(4):2000–2020.