Beyond the Bottleneck: Predicting Regeneration Potential in Sunflower Through Integrated Morphological and Statistical Profiling

This study presents the first integrated analysis of genotype-medium interactions and temporal morphogenesis profiling in sunflower regeneration. It aims to characterize genotype-specific responses, identify predictive morphological markers, and develop a scalable framework for breeding and transformation. Eighteen sunflower genotypes were evaluated to assess organogenic performance. The model genotype Ha-26-PR was used for a complementary experiment, testing varying sucrose concentrations to examine their influence on morphogenic outcomes. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA), guided by the Elbow method, identified four optimal clusters (K = 4). These aligned with three biologically meaningful categories: High Regenerators (Cluster 1), Moderate/Specific Regenerators (Clusters 2 and 3), and Non-Regenerators (Cluster 4). On S1 medium, NO-SU-12 and AS-1-PR showed superior shoot regeneration, while on R4 medium, HA-26-PR-SU and NO-SU-12 performed best. Genotypes such as NO-SU-12 and AS-1-PR consistently excelled across both media, whereas AB-OR-8 and FE-7 remained non-regenerators. Medium R4 supported superior regeneration, primarily through root formation, while S1 failed to induce roots in any genotype, highlighting the importance of hormonal composition. Although sucrose promoted callus induction, it did not trigger organogenesis. Callus was consistently present across media and time points, but its correlations with shoot and root formation were weak and temporally unstable, limiting its predictive value. Root formation at 14 days (Root 14D) emerged as a robust early predictor of organogenic success. This integration of morphological, temporal, and statistical analyses offers a genotype-tailored regeneration framework with direct applications in molecular breeding and CRISPR/Cas-based genome editing.