In October 2024, HelEx joined the annual meeting of the International Consortium for Sunflower Genomics (ICSG), the main global forum bringing together public and private actors working on sunflower genetics and genomics. The event gathers academic researchers, breeding companies and public institutes to align efforts on reference genomes, trait discovery and shared data resources for Helianthus annuus.
HelEx coordinator Nicolas Langlade (INRAE) presented the genomic resources being generated within the project, including new high-quality assemblies of wild Helianthus species, population-level variant catalogues and the pipelines HelEx is developing to make this data usable for both research and breeding. The presentation positioned HelEx as an active contributor to the global sunflower genomics community and highlighted the open, collaborative spirit of the project.
For HelEx, this kind of scientific cooperation matters because breeding climate-resilient and pollinator-friendly sunflower varieties relies on the widest possible base of genetic knowledge. Sharing resources with ICSG partners strengthens the interoperability of sunflower data worldwide and increases the chance that HelEx outputs will be reused across breeding programmes in Europe and beyond.
