ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biosafety and Biosecurity
This article is part of the Research TopicPlant Science and Crop Enhancement - Innovation and ChallengesView all articles
Towards Efficient Screening Systems for Sunflower Drought Tolerance: A Comparative and Molecular Perspective
Provisionally accepted
Malin Alf1
Alessia Ronchi2
Aleksandra Radanovic3
Florian Schilling1
Kimon Ionas3
Boško Dedić3
Srđan Bursać3
Siniša Jocić3
Zeena D'Costa Rodriguez2
Serena Varotto2
Dragana Miladinović3
Renate Horn1*- 1University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany
- 2Universita degli studi di Padova Scuola di Scienze, Padua, Italy
- 3Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, Serbia
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The observed longer and more frequent periods of drought in recent years require more focus on efficient breeding for drought-tolerant crops. Several systems have been used to simulate drought conditions in order to select for drought tolerant lines. However, little is known about the comparability of different screening methods. In this study, four different systems were compared in terms of information provided on drought tolerance: two in vitro systems (liquid and solid medium applying polyethylene glycol as drought simulant) and two soil-based pot trials conducted either in a green house or in a climate chamber. Two sunflower inbred lines differing in drought tolerance (AB-OR-8 and DF-AB-2) were characterized at the seedling stage using physiological and morphological parameters of shoots and roots. Transcriptome analysis (RNA-seq) as well as quantitative RT-PCR were performed to compare drought responses and stress levels applied by the different systems. In an assessment of all four screening methods, five of six selected genes in the ABA signalling pathway were differentially upregulated under drought, while one was downregulated. These genes represent valuable indicators for the stress level applied by a drought screening method. Advantages and disadvantages of different drought-simulating systems were evaluated and combined with the next generation sequencing data to identify the most efficient selection approach for assessing drought tolerance in sunflower. Overall, all systems enable effective pre-screening of breeding material for drought tolerance, with the choice for one system depending on experimental goals and resource availability. If the goal is to maximize molecular resolution of drought stress, the in vitro liquid system is the most effective.
Keywords: Abscisic Acid, climate resilient sunflower, Drought stress, in vitro screening, Pot trials, Transcriptome
Received: 29 Oct 2025; Accepted: 29 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Alf, Ronchi, Radanovic, Schilling, Ionas, Dedić, Bursać, Jocić, D'Costa Rodriguez, Varotto, Miladinović and Horn. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Renate Horn
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