Everything about the sunflower intrigues Jennifer Mandel — the tilt of its oversized head, its stunning adaptability as a species and the power that glorious head may have for improving yields across a swath of crops.

It also helps that its family — Asteraceae — is the largest group of flowering plants in the world. That means breakthroughs in one species could have wide-ranging effects, including sustainability of food sources.

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But it also means the sunflower, and its myriad relatives — lettuces, dandelions, chyrsanthemums and others, including stevia — have already found ways to adapt in every corner of the globe, both arid and damp.

“We really want to know what are the DNA changes that allowed them to be able to adapt,” said Mandel, 42, who holds the new Billy Dunavant Endowed Chair of Agritech & Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Memphis.

“And knowing that, we can transfer that knowledge into our crops.”