James Holland
USDA Professor
Maize Breeding & Genetics
Faculty
Williams Hall 1238
We are interested in understanding the nature of genetic variation within maize (field corn),Zea mays:
- How is genetic variation distributed among and within temperate inbred lines, temperate landraces, tropical inbred lines, and tropical accessions?
- Are there unique allelic variants in exotic, tropical maize that are absent from the U.S. breeding pool?
- Which genomic regions are associated with phenotypic variance for important agronomic traits (grain yield, flowering time, plant height, disease resistance)?
- How do allelic variations at different loci interact in their effects on phenotypes (is epistasis important, and how does it ramify from genic interactions to phenotypic interactions)?
- What are the most efficient breeding procedures for incorporating unique and favorable alleles from unadapted genetic backgrounds into well-adapted temperate lines?
- Can DNA marker-assisted selection aid us in this task?
In addition, we have a program to identify the genetic basis of resistance to corn ear rot caused by Fusarium fungal species and of resistance to the accumulation of the mycotoxin, fumonisin, caused by the fungus.
Publications
- Effects of artificial inoculation on trait correlations with resistance to Fusarium ear rot and fumonisin contamination in maize, Crop Science (2021)
- Eleven biosynthetic genes explain the majority of natural variation in carotenoid levels in maize grain, The Plant Cell (2021)
- Utility of Climatic Information via Combining Ability Models to Improve Genomic Prediction for Yield Within the Genomes to Fields Maize Project, FRONTIERS IN GENETICS (2021)
- A Genome-Wide Association Study To Understand the Effect of Fusarium verticillioides Infection on Seedlings of a Maize Diversity Panel, G3-GENES GENOMES GENETICS (2020)
- Association mapping and genomic prediction for ear rot disease caused by Fusarium verticillioides in a tropical maize germplasm, CROP SCIENCE (2020)
- Dominance Effects and Functional Enrichments Improve Prediction of Agronomic Traits in Hybrid Maize, GENETICS (2020)
- Eleven biosynthetic genes explain the majority of natural variation for carotenoid levels in maize grain (2020)
- Genetic variation for response to mixed triazole and strobilurin application in diverse maize, Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment (2020)
- Genome-wide association analysis of the strength of the MAMP-elicited defense response and resistance to target leaf spot in sorghum, SCIENTIFIC REPORTS (2020)
- Genomic prediction for resistance to Fusarium ear rot and fumonisin contamination in maize, CROP SCIENCE (2020)