Genomics of Abiotic Stress Resistance in Wild and Cultivated Sunflowers Investigators Institution Expertise Loren Rieseberg U. British Columbia Genomics John Burke U. Georgia Genomics Lisa Donovan U. Georgia Ecophysiology Emily Marden U. British Columbia IP, Policy, & Regulation Brent Hulke USDA ARS Fargo Molecular Breeding Sam Yeaman U Calgary Bioinformatics Navin Ramankutty U. British Columbia Agricultural Land Use

The Challenge Flooding 10% Low nutrient 22% Salt 10% Fraction of world's arable land affected by abiotic stresses targeted by this project Source: Dimensions of need - An atlas of food and agriculture (www.fao.org)

Sunflower, a global oil seed Seed production valued at $20 billion US Hybrid seed valued at $1 billion US, second only to maize Priority food security crop Production in Canada & worldwide to expand with climate change Source: www.fao.org Collaborator & User - Walter Anyanga

Wild Sunflowers Flooding & salt tolerant sunflower Numerous wild extremophile sunflowers cross-compatible with cultivated sunflower Salt & drought tolerant sunflower Drought tolerant sunflower Low-nutrient tolerant sunflower

Goals Exploit sunflower crop-wild diversity to identify alleles that confer tolerance to drought, salt, low nutrient, and flooding stress, but with minimal yield trade-offs; Create germplasm resources to efficiently deliver these alleles to end users (sunflower breeders); Enable development and use of resistant, high-yielding cultivars that increase productivity of marginal lands in Canada and elsewhere.

Project Overview + Crop Germplasm (Activity 1) • Population genomics of stress resistance - Range-wide sampling of extremophile species - Environmental data (climate, soil, water) Wild Relatives (Activity 2) • GWAS of drought, salt, flood, nutrient stress - HTP + traditional phenotyping • Mechanistic analyses of stress resistance Crop Germplasm (Activity 1) Scientific Outcomes: System level understanding of abiotic stress resistance Validation of candidate genes, potential extension to other oilseeds Deliverables: "Next generation” germplasm resources Central data mining and analysis resource Models for predicting yields of resistant sunflower cultivars across Canada Strategic recommendations for mitigating barriers to R&D caused by treaties Anticipated Scientific Outcomes and Deliverables Development & characterization of MAGIC populations (Activity 3) Functional analyses of candidate genes (Activity 4) GE3LS – Develop crop yield models (Activity 5) GE3LS – Explore how international treaties impact germplasm use (Activity 6) Crop + Wild (Activities 3-6) +

USER PARTNERS: GERMPLASM & BREEDING HIGH-THROUGHPUT PHENOTYPING Expertise USER PARTNERS: GERMPLASM & BREEDING Anyanga (NaSARRI) Conque, (Biogemma) de la Vega (Pioneer) Gerdes (NuSeed) Hulke (USDA) Marek (USDA) May (AgCanada) Wieckhorst (KWS) Xiao (Dow) Zambelli (Advanta) HIGH-THROUGHPUT PHENOTYPING Andrade-Sanchez (U. Arizona) Bali (DREC) Langlade (INRA) BIOINFORMATICS Burke (U. Georgia) Kubach (SAP AG) Rieseberg (UBC) Yeaman (U. Calgary) GEL3S Marden (UBC) Ramankutty (UBC) GENOMICS & PHYSIOLOGY Donovan (U. Georgia) Parrott (U. Georgia) Yeaman (USDA)

Benefits to Canada & Developing World Next Generation Germplasm Enhanced Molecular Breeding Project years 2-4 Strategies for Reducing Barriers to Ag Innovation Sunflower Breeding Programs Training of HQP Crop Yield Models Data Mining Tools GE3LS Gene Editing Mutations Introduced into Soybean HQP from Project enter Workplace Environmentally Resilient Cultivars in Field Within 5 years Greater Clarity on Application of Treaty & More Informed Decisions on Production of Resistant Cultivars Increased Efficacy of Resistance Alleles Increased food security Improved crop health Adaptation to climate change Reduced environmental impacts