SUNLAB

SUNLAB is dedicated to simulate the sunflower organogenesis, morphogenesis, biomass accumulationand biomass partitioning to organs. It is adapted to model phenotypic responses of different genotypic variants to diverse environmental factors including temperature stress and water deficit. The model provides a novel way of investigating genotype performances under different environmental conditions. These promising results are a first step toward the potential use of the model as a support tool to design sunflower ideotypes adapted to the current worldwide ecological and economical challenges and to assist the breeding procedure.

It was parameterized and evaluated using experimental datasets collected on four genotypes and two water stress conditions. The comparison of the parameter values obtained foreach genotype allowed differentiating genotypic parameters from crop parameters