Drought affected farmers could soon be planting sunflower crops developed specifically for dry conditions by University of Queensland researchers.
UQ’s main technology commercialisation company, UniQuest, has licensed UQ’s drought tolerant sunflower material to leading seed companies including Pacific Seeds Pty Ltd and Lefroy Seeds.
The commercial deal will allow the companies to breed drought tolerant sunflower hybrids for sale to farmers in Australia and overseas, according to UniQuest Managing Director David Henderson.
“The UQ sunflower material is extremely promising for sunflower breeders and UniQuest is hoping to sign further non-exclusive licenses in the near future,” said Mr Henderson.
The drought tolerant sunflower material belongs to the UQsun range which has been developed by UQ research fellow in molecular plant breeding, Dr Chris Lambrides.
The UQsun drought tolerant material comprises hundreds of sunflower lines and took Dr Lambrides seven years to develop.
He produced the drought tolerant lines by selecting sunflowers with high Transpiration Efficiency (TE) – the amount of dry matter accumulated per unit of water transpired.
“I felt a real sense of accomplishment when we signed the licensing deal, however, the real test is to come, when we see how the UQsun lines go in the real world,” said Dr Lambrides.
“Among experimental hybrids, we had an increased yield in dry conditions of 22 to 35 per cent but realistically we’re hoping that in a commercial situation farmers will achieve a 10 to 15 per cent higher grain yield in really dry conditions.
“We’ve also found that UQsun has excellent tolerance to the sunflower disease, rust.”
It’s a breeding breakthrough which Dr Lambrides hopes will herald a new suite of crops bred to withstand the increasing drought conditions.
CSIRO has used TE to breed drought tolerant wheat varieties, while Dr Lambrides has turned his attention to canola and mung beans, and his colleagues in the Queensland Department of Primary Industry and Forestry are developing drought tolerant peanuts.
The technology is only applicable in temperate, cool climate species.
Dr Lambrides work has been supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and CSIRO.
For more information, contact Julia Renaud, Corporate Development Manager, UniQuest, (phone: 07. 3365 4037, mobile: 0438 436 179 or email j.renaud@uniquest.com.au) or Dr Chis Lambridies (phone: 07 3365 1103, mobile: 0408 247 721 or email: chris.lambrides@uq.edu.au)
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