Biology of Rare Alleles in Maize

This project improves our understanding of the genetic architecture of complex traits in maize and its wild relative, teosinte. Maize has a combination of life history, economic and societal value, and genetic tools that make it uniquely suited to studying genetic architecture. Additionally, the ability of molecular and population genetic polymorphism descriptors to aid identifcation of functional rare alleles is also a key outcome of this project as is the prediction of phenotype from genotype in diverse maize cultivars.