EXPLORATION OF GENOMIC SELECTION AND GENOME-WIDE ASSOCIATION STUDIES FOR ILLINOIS CROP BREEDING PROGRAMS

1.To maintain collaborations with breeders and experts of the most important crops in Illinois. These collaborators will be both within the Department of Crop Sciences and throughout the state of Illinois. This will help ensure that the statistical approaches developed in the Lipka Lab are directly relevant to the breeding objectives of collaborators, and thus maximize the potential for them to have a meaningful impact on plant breeding.2. To attend scientific meetings to ensure that the most up-to-date GS and GWAS statistical models are being used for genomic selection. This will help ensure that research conducted in the Lipka Lab is not repeating cutting edge research conducted at peer institutions, and instead is synergistic in the sense that it benefits the entire crop breeding research community as a whole.3. To maintain and improve computational facilities to assess the performance of GS models. This will help ensure that research conducted by the Lipka Lab is conducted in an efficient manner.