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jyu
Professor
Pioneer Distinguished Chair in Maize Breeding
Director of Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding
Dr.
Jianming
Yu
Office:
1569 Agronomy, 716 Farm House Ln
Phone:
(515) 294-2757
Email:
jmyu@iastate.edu
jyu
Professor
Pioneer Distinguished Chair in Maize Breeding
Director of Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding
Dr.
Jianming
Yu
Office:
1569 Agronomy, 716 Farm House Ln
Phone:
(515) 294-2757
Email:
jmyu@iastate.edu

About

Jianming Yu is Professor, Pioneer Distinguished Chair in Maize Breeding, and Director of Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding in the Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University. The focus of Yu’s program is to address significant questions in quantitative genetics by combining cutting-edge genomic technologies and plant breeding. Maize and sorghum are two major crops with annual nurseries with thousands of research plots, but the group has worked on many other crops through collaboration and open data (rice, wheat, oat, peanut, and soybean). He earned his B.S. from Northwest A&F University in 1994, M.S. from Kansas State University in 2000, and Ph.D. from University of Minnesota in 2003. He worked at Kansas State University from 2006 to 2012 and then moved to Iowa State University in 2013. His research integrates knowledge in quantitative genetics, genomics, plant breeding, molecular genetics, and statistics, and has the goal of developing and implementing new strategies and methods in complex trait dissection and crop improvement. He has made significant contributions in research discoveries and community leadership and service. Among other honors, Yu was elected to Fellow of Crop Science Society of America and Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Much of Yu’s research has been focused on investigating the genetic architecture of quantitative and qualitative traits with evolutionary and agricultural importance, the interplay of genes, environment, and development underlying phenotypic variation, and the strategies to enhance crop improvement by design optimization and prediction. Yu’s significant research contributions include developing the integrated framework for both gene discovery underlying phenotypic plasticity and performance prediction across environments, developing the mixed model framework for genome-wide association studies, outlining the nested association mapping strategy, pioneering genomic selection research in crops, prototyping a comprehensive strategy to turbocharge genebanks to mine the natural heritage, quantifying genic and nongenic contributions to quantitative trait variation in maize, identifying the Shattering1 gene and its homologs underlying the parallel domestication of multiple cereal species (sorghum, maize, rice, and foxtail millet), uncovering a domestication triangle involving sorghum tannin and the pair of Tannin1 and Tannin2 genes, and revealing the patterns in DNA base composition divergence and chromosome size variation across multiple species.

News Releases:
Interdepartmental Programs:

Genetics and Genomics https://www.genetics.iastate.edu/

Plant Biology https://www.ipb.iastate.edu/

People

Graduate Student
joseph detemple
Office:
1541 Agronomy
Postdoc Research Associate
Dongdong_20Li
Office:
1541 Agronomy Hall, 716 Farm House Lane
Email:
ddli@iastate.edu
Graduate Student
Karlene Negus_Headshotbrick
Office:
1541 Agronomy Hall, 716 Farm House Ln
Email:
knegus@iastate.edu
Graduate Student
Kiara Kappelman
Office:
1541 Agronomy Hall, 716 Farm House Ln
Email:
kiarak@iastate.edu
Research Scientist II
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Research Scientist II
profile_pic
Office:
1311A Agronomy Hall, 716 Farm House Ln
Phone:
(515) 294-1845
Email:
gregorys@iastate.edu
PostDoc Research Associate
Alladassi_Boris_headshot
Office:
1541 Agronomy Hall, 716 Farm House Lane
Phone:
+1 515 299 2054
Email:
aboris@iastate.edu
PostDoc Research Associate
fattelleila
Office:
0035B Roy J. Carver Co-Laboratory
Email:
lfattel@iastate.edu
Interim Department Chair
Morrill Professor
Associate Chair of Academics
MS Agronomy Program Director
Portrait of Dr. Mary Wiedenhoeft, Morrill Professor
Office:
2104B/1126H Agronomy, 716 Farm House Ln
Phone:
(515) 294-3274
Email:
mwiedenh@iastate.edu

Publications

Jianming Yu on Google Scholar

Highlight: Negus, K.L., X. Li, S.M. Welch, and J. Yu*. 2024. The role of artificial intelligence in crop improvement. Advances in Agronomy 184:1-66.

[Breeding Strategy]

[Complex Trait Dissection]

[Genes and Genetics]

[Genomes and Chromosomes]