Indicateurs physiologiques pour le screening de génotypes de tournesol tolérants aux basses températures associées au semis précoce

Sunflower is a summer crop often subjected to water stress, which could reduce substantially the yield. Early sowing is one of the crop management strategies to escape the drought stress mainly during flowering. Sowing one or two months earlier may lead to place the seeds and seedlings growth in conditions of low temperature. Low temperature exposure has consequences for most biological processes. It initiates also a number of physiological changes which can lead the plant to be more cold tolerant. Physiological traits commonly used to underlying cold tolerance, as well as traits associated with growth capacity at low temperature, are presented and discussed in the article. The most important ones need to be evaluated in sunflower to explore genetic variability.