Letting the genie out of the maize genebank bottle

The Seeds of Discovery Initiative for Maize seeks to employ targeted genomic and phenotypic evaluation together with novel biometric and bioinformatic analyses to open the black box of genetic resources.  We are actively deploying  multiple approaches and will present some insights seen from the extensive population level genebank genotyping of over 20,000 genebank accessions using a novel GBS approach and from a GWAS study involving the most comprehensive panel of maize genetic resources to date. Ongoing work involving per-se evaluations of select genebank accessions and pre-breeding efforts employing genomics assisted and conventional strategies will be presented . Through integration of these efforts we are working to better understand and explore the genetic and phenotypic space of maize, and through mobilization of novel, useful genetic variation from genebanks into breeding programs to enable the opening of the genetic bottleneck present in many breeding programs and facilitate use of the wealth of native traits present in genebanks.