Area of Expertise: Plant Breeding and Genetics

Area of Focus: Computational Biology

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Education

B.S., Biology, Cornell University, 2008
Ph.D., Plant Biology, University of California-Berkeley, 2012.

James Schnable is a Professor in the Department of Agronomy & Horticulture at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln where his work focuses on maize and sorghum genomics, genetics, and genotype by environment interaction. Students in the Schnable Lab collaborate closely with faculty in statistics, computer science, or engineering. Schnable has helped found three startups commercializing bioinformatic, quantitative genetic, or digital agricultural technologies. His research is currently supported by the US Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Nebraska Corn Growers.

For details on specific ongoing research projects in the lab and bios for current and former lab members, please visit schnablelab.org.

Recognition

• Recipient of the 2024 Outstanding Postdoc Mentor Award from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Office of Graduate Studies.
• Recipient of the 2019 Early Career Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists.
• Recipient of the 2019 Early Career Award from the North American Plant Phenotyping Network.
• Recipient of the 2018 Marcus Rhoades Award for Maize Genetics.
• Recipient of the 2016 Junior Faculty Excellence in Research Award from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Publications

Google Scholar publication list

Selected from 134 publications 2010-2023

• Grzybowski M, Mural RV, Xu G, Turkus, J, Yang Jinliang, Schnable JC (2023) A common resequencing-based genetic marker dataset for global maize diversity. The Plant Journal doi: 10.1111/tpj.16123 Cover Article, March 2023 Research Highlight in The Plant Journal doi: 10.1111/tpj.16123
• Sun G, Yu H, Wang P, Lopez-Guerrero MG, Mural RV, Mizero ON, Grzybowski M, Song B, van Dijk K, Schachtman DP, Zhang C, Schnable JC (2023) A role for heritable transcriptomic variation in maize adaptation to temperate environments. Genome Biology doi: 10.1186/s13059-023-02891-3
• Mural RV, Sun G, Grzybowski M, Tross MC, Jin H, Smith C, Newton L, Andorf CM, Woodhouse MR, Thompson AM, Sigmon B, Schnable JC (2022) “Association mapping across a multitude of traits collected in diverse environments identifies pleiotropic loci in maize.” Gigascience doi: 10.1093/gigascience/giac080
• Sun G, Wase N, Su S, Jenkins J, Zhou B, Torres-Rodriguez JT … Foltz A (17th of 26 authors) … Sigmon B, Yu B, Obata T, Schmutz J, Schnable JC “Genome of Paspalum vaginatum and the role of trehalose mediated autophagy in increasing maize biomass” Nature Communications doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-35507-8
• Meng X, Liang Z, Dai X, Zhang Y, Mahboub S, Ngu DW, Roston RL, Schnable JC (2021) “Predicting transcriptional responses to cold stress across plant species.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences doi: 10.1073/pnas.2026330118