TEMPO project’s steering committee held in GEVES

The Tempo project, supported by Séléopro, was launched last year. It targets the sunflower’s establishment in cold conditions or when there is a lack of oxygen in the soil. The aim is to secure planting when extending the area northwards or bring forward sowing dates. In this way, breeders are looking for avoiding high temperatures during grain filling.

On 28 January, 20 participants, partners and funders gathered at GEVES to review the first year of the project.

Our laboratories presented the initial results of measurements of the thickness of the pericarp of achenes using 3D micro-tomography and of the heterotrophic growth of lines in cold conditions using the Eloncam automated system. The GEVES biochemistry division presented the work planned in near-IR spectroscopy and biochemical assays with the recently started internship of Hanene Boumediene (M2 Biotechnologies-Biochemistry at the University of La Rochelle).

The seed biology team at Sorbonne University will also begin transcriptomic work on the selected lines based on growth results obtained under controlled conditions and in the field in 2025 by the three breeders involved in the project.

New field trials will be set up this year in the northern experimental network of Soltis, RAGT and MasSeeds, and GEVES plans to automate the analysis of images from the growth chamber with the help of an intern, Benjamin Tchiche (M2 Photonics, Imaging and Signals at the University of Angers), co-supervised by IRHS, and the use of deep learning.

A visit of GEVES’s laboratories has completed the day.