Breeding for downy mildew resistance is one of the major goals in sunflower breeding programmes. In the last few decades new sources of resistance have been discovered and the position of 11 resistance genes was established on the genetic map of sunflower. For most of these resistance genes sequence specific markers have been developed which facilitate their detection and make the selection process faster and more reliable. By combining the partial resistance provided by minor genes with specific resistance genes durable resistance could be achieved.