He's been blazing trails ever since. It brings together a multidisciplinary research team to develop new, efficient genetic mapping tools that will identify the physical locations of genes on chromosomes. The tools will be used to molecularly dissect the corn genome at a rate of thousands of genes at a time, and help the team better understand the molecular nature of complex genetic traits, such as the vigor of hybrids, Schnable said. Schnable has one more vision for the project. He wants to facilitate interaction between plant breeders and molecular biologists.
Plant breeders look at the combined action of all the genes in a large population of plants.
Molecular biologists, on the other hand, look at how a particular gene controls a particular trait. It will help them make decisions about which inbreds to test in hybrids. It also will help them understand why certain techniques have been so successful in the past and perhaps help them find more efficient ways to proceed in the future. The problem is, in order to do this right, we need to look at thousands of plants at the DNA level. Current technologies simply don't allow us to do that efficiently and cost-effectively.