HelEx: Use of extremophile helianthus species to mitigate climate change impact on feedstock and ecosystem services provided by sunflower
Duration:
05/2023
—
04/2027
Total Project Duration
4 Years
The project
How do you make sunflowers resistant to heat?
The aim of HelEx is to develop tools to promote the adaptation of sunflower species to extreme drought and heat stress. The project focusses on two characteristics that are increasingly influenced by climate change: Maintaining ecosystem services (the benefits to humans) as well as the pollinator and seed quality. HelEx will offer climate-resilient sunflower varieties that combine important aspects to meet the complex demands of the future.
Our activities in the project
LIFE is in charge of analysing the environmental and socio-economic impacts along the affected value chains. We use the life cycle analysis method to assess the environmental impact. The socio-economic impacts are analysed on the basis of the GLOB-IO model developed at the institute.
Downloads
Customers
European Commission
Project partner
INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE POUR L’AGRICULTURE, L’ALIMENTATION ET L’ENVIRONNEMENT - INRAE
INSTITUT ZA RATARSTVO I POVRTARSTVO INSTITUT OD NACIONALNOG ZNACAJA ZA REPUBLIKU SRBIJU
Stichting Wageningen Research
Julius Kühn-Institut Bundesforschungsinstitut für Kulturpflanzen
NapiFeryn BioTech Sp. z o.o.
MAS Seeds Romania
HIPHEN
MESH COMMUNICATION
Innolea SAS
FH Kärnten gemeinnützige GmbH
Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Formation de l'Enseignement Agricole
Syngenta France SA
INRAE Transfert SAS
University of Georgia Research Foundation
University of British Columbia
UC Berkeley
Details of the project
New breeding methods are being used in this project to accelerate the development of sunflower varieties that are adapted to extreme drought and heat. In addition, the environmental impact and economic value of the resulting innovations along the value chains will be assessed.
The project aims
- Research of the genetics of drought and heat tolerance in wild Helianthus species and wild Helianthus annuus alleles (gene variants that determine the expression of a trait) that can be introduced into cultivated sunflowers.
- Determination of the molecular processes involved in tolerance and genetic control of seed quality and pollinator attractiveness, and transfer of these processes using classical marker-assisted selection and innovative genome editing approaches.
- Assessment of the environmental and biodiversity impacts of these new sunflower species and analysis of the socio-economic impacts and benefits in the relevant value chains for different raw materials.
