Sunflowers, daisies, and their relatives belong to a family of plants that make up ca. 10% of flowering plant biodiversity and include numerous species of horticultural, medicinal, and industrial value. This group of flowering plants also contains economically important food crops including artichoke, lettuce, safflower, and sunflower. It is considered one of the most successful plant families due to its large size and global distribution. Key to the success of the family is its inflorescence (a capitulum or flower head) which resembles a single, large flower but is actually an aggregate of many small flowers. This unique floral structure plays an important role in pollinator attraction and is a major determinant of yield in many of the family’s crop species. Despite the importance of the capitulum, little is known about the genes involved in its development. Understanding how inflorescences develop has the potential to improve food security through optimization of floral structures for yield in crops, and by accelerating progress toward new crop development. This project will increase available genomic resources for the family and result in the development of novel tools for gene editing in the family. This work will shed light on the genes involved in the development of the capitulum inflorescence in an economically important family and provide valuable information that will facilitate efforts for optimizing inflorescence architecture in related crops. This project will pro