NIFA Invests $3.4M in Agricultural Genomes to Phenomes Initiative

The Agricultural Genomes to Phenomes Initiative focuses on expanding knowledge concerning genomes and phenomes of importance to the agriculture sector of the United States to accurately predict crop and animal performance under variable conditions and enable more efficient selection of well-adapted, superior genotypes that farmers and ranchers can produce.

2023 Awardees

• University of California - Davis, CA
• Iowa State University - Ames, IA

2023 Project Highlights

• An award to the University of California, Davis will fund development of methods to effectively promote open science and collaborative efforts in agriculture while directly addressing confidentiality concerns by using homomorphic encryption techniques. Educational efforts will development new materials to provide advanced training in the application of these methods toward genome to phenome research.
• Bridging the gap between genetics and traits while accounting for interactions between weather and environment remains a critical challenge in crops and livestock breeding and production. An award to Iowa State University will bring together diverse disciplines to develop models that predict trait expression in diverse conditions using data types that include gene expression sets, and genetic variation from diverse populations of individuals. The project will employ statistical models that are applicable across both crops and animals.