YIELD PERFORMANCES OF OLEIC TYPE SUNFLOWER HYBRIDS IN TURKEY AND HUNGARY Goksel Evci¹, Rozália Nagyné Kutni 2 , Yalcin Kaya¹, László Pálvölgyi 2 , Melinda Tremmelné Tar 2 , Sandor Paricsi 2 , Veli Pekcan¹, Tahir Gucer¹, Mehmet I. Yilmaz¹ ¹ Trakya Agricultural Research Institute, PO Box: 16, 22100 Edirne, TURKEY, Phone: +90 284 2358182, Fax :+90 284 2358210, e-mail: yalcinkaya@ttae.gov.tr 2 The Cereal Research Non-Profit Co, Szeged H-6726, Alsókikötő sor 9. P.O. Box 391. Szeged, Hungary, Phone: +36 62 435-235 ABSTRACT The research was conducted to develop joint mid and high oleic type sunflower hybrids based on a bilateral project between Trakya and Szeged Institutes. The experiments were conducted reciprocally in Turkey and Hungary in 2007 and 2008. The content of the oleic acid (C18:1) in the sunflower hybrids was observed between 44,87% and 86,54% in Szeged but it was between 23,0% and 90,0% were in Edirne conditions in 2007. However, in 2008 season the oleic acid content of the hybrids changed between 33.09% and 87.63% in Turkey and between 53.29% and 80.57% in Hungary. Based on these results, 8 of the joint sunflower hybrids which were studied in the Turkish trials were categorized as mid oleic type, having 65-79% oleic acid content and 4 of them- as high oleic type, having over 80% oleic acid content in 2007. Additionally, 20 joint hybrids were classified as mid oleic type and one hybrid as high oleic type in Szeged trials. Whereas 14 joint hybrids were put into mid oleic type and 3 in high oleic type in Edirne trials in 2008. On the other hand, although some joint hybrids exhibited more stable oleic acid content that was not influenced by the environmental conditions, in some of them, about 10% more or less differences between Edirne and Szeged conditions were observed. The hybrids with particularly high oleic acid content which exhibited high adaptation capability and yield performance were selected in the project and will be commercialized in the next years after evaluating other yield traits too. KEY WORDS: Sunflower, Oleic type Hybrid, Oleic acid content, Turkey, Hungary INTRODUCTION The high content of linoleic fatty acid in sunflower ((Helianthus annuus L.) makes it more suitable for the cooking oil production. However, the oleic type sunflower demand has been gradually increasing in recent years due to the extensive use of high oleic sunflower oil (over 80 %) for frying, as well as the healthier and high quality oil for the consumers that it offers. Although oleic type sunflower production reached over % 50 in Spain and France, almost 100% in US, it was just started in Turkey recently, some Eastern European countries and % 10 of production in Hungary (Kaya et al., 2007b). High oleic content is firstly discovered by Soldatov (1976) in Russia utilizing by chemical mutations. Oleic acid content is determined by Ol genes and it is mainly determined in especially after blooming in sunflower (Garces et al., 1989; Fernandez-Martinez et al., 1989; Fernandez-Martinez et al., 1999; Miller and Fick, 2004). Beside of the genetic factors, fatty acid content in sunflower is also influenced highly by environmental factors too (Baydar and Erbas, 2005; Alpaslan and Gunduz, 2000). Temperature changes especially night temperatures during the grain filling (Garces et al., 1989; Harris et. al., 1978; Goyne et. al., 1979, Garces and Mancha, 1991; Anastasi et. al., 2000) and stress conditions especially water