Handling sunflower (Helianthus annuusL.) populations under heat stress

Abstract

Sustainable sunflower yield is under threat by a significant rise in global temperatures. Therefore, the development of a heat-resistant sunflower breeding population or hybrid is important for sustainable yield under high temperatures. Although there are a significant number of studies aimed at understanding the mechanism of heat resistance, only few direct approaches were made to improve heat resistance in sunflower. When breeding for heat resistance, the selection criteria are important. A desirable screening criterion should be rapid, highly heritable, and allow for the discrimination of resistant and susceptible ecotypes before reproductive maturity so that undesirable plants can be eliminated. In contrast, destructive selection criteria are not applicable for a segregating population. On the basis of an extensive review of data and experimentation, traits such as leaf and head orientation at the time of anthesis are proposed for practical utilization of sunflower heat-resistant breeding. These traits could be utilized as markers linked with heat avoidance. The traits are simply inherited, non-destructive, non-laborious, and show no impact of the environment and are independent of genotype × environment.

Development of a robust hydroponic method for screening of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) accessions for tolerance to heat and osmotic stress

“…Plant survivability under stress is an important measure of heat tolerance in sunflower, and has been exploited by plant breeders to differentiate the germplasm 3 , 20 , 21 . Seedling survivability under stress is based on various biochemical parameters such as the higher activity of key enzyme scavenging of the ROS species and protecting the protein structure, chlorophyll stability and low respiration losses 22 , 23 .…”

“…Approximately 75% of the global land area has been affected by water stress and only 13% of the arable area could be cultivatable free of this abiotic stress 2 . A rise in global temperature due to continued and increasing emission of greenhouse gases may further aggravate the situation 3 .…”

Shifts in the abiotic and biotic environment of cultivated sunflower under future climate change

“…It also carries many nutritional benefits, is high in protein (20% by seed dry weight); antioxidants such as Vitamin E (only 40 g providing daily requirements); and essential polyunsaturated fats (up to 60-70% linoleic content for common, non High-Oleic types) (USDA, 2017). To date there has been extensive work to characterise the phenotypes and genetics of sunflower crop wild relatives in their native range (Seiler 2007;Kane & Rieseberg 2007;Mandel et al, 2011;Kalyar et al, 2014;Kantar et al, 2015;Mason & Donovan 2015;Seiler et al, 2017); which, combined with the recent sequencing of the sunflower genome (Badouin et al, 2017), opens up new opportunities for expedited breeding of cultivars that are both adapted to extreme conditions and carry nutritional benefits.…”

Development of drought‐tolerant breeding lines derived from Helianthus annuus × H. argophyllus interspecific crosses

“…Drought is a leading abiotic stress factor in field crops (Rauf, Al‐Khayri, Zaharieva, Monneveux, & Khalil, ). The continuous rise in air temperature due to increased greenhouse gases (climate change) may further increase risk of drought and water shortages, just as higher evaporation may increase canopy transpiration and thus crop water demand (Kalyar, Rauf, & Teixeira da Silva, ). Sunflower yield losses have been enormous in arid regions of the world, and 5%–20% yield reductions in Spain, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania have been predicted in 2020 and 2030 due to higher temperature (increased leaf senescence) and lower precipitation (Debaeke, Casadebaig, Flenet, & Langlade, ).…”