Iowa State Researchers Highlight the Power of Genomic Selection in Modern Agriculture

Developing high-yielding, nutritious and climate-resilient crops is vital to safeguard the future of global food production. To meet the challenges ahead, Iowa State University scientists are working with crop breeders to look for approaches that can efficiently speed up crop improvement programs.

"Genomic selection is an important part of the answer," according to Professor Jianming Yu, the Pioneer Distinguished Chair in Maize Breeding and director of the Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding at Iowa State.

Genomic selection (GS) is a set of related technologies quickly moving from theory to practice. In just a couple of decades, they are bringing seismic changes to crop and animal breeding programs.

A recent paper, Genomic Selection: Essence, applications and prospects in the prestigious scientific journal, The Plant Genome, reviews GS as part of a special section on crop genetics, genomics and biotechnology. The lead author, Diana Escamilla, a former post-doctoral researcher in Yu's lab, is now a crop breeding specialist in private industry. 

Escamilla, Yu and the article's other authors describe GS as a plant breeding strategy designed to predict measurable traits. It exploits relationships between a plant's genetic makeup and its phenotypes (observable characteristics) to build models that can better predict performance. The process increases the capacity to evaluate more individual crops and shortens the time required for breeding cycles. It can be used for multiple purposes, including exploring genetic diversity, selecting breeding parents for desired traits, and choosing genetics adapted to future predicted conditions by incorporating environmental variables.

It was exciting to be invited to write this paper to help people understand genomic selection, why it's important and how it is evolving. As in the title, we try to capture the essence of genomic selection and explain how the strategy can allow breeders to more quickly and accurately respond to the needs of farmers and a growing human population."

Diana Escamilla, Lead Author

"As we look ahead, the field is integrating new technologies like artificial intelligence and creating new decision-support tools. It started with corn, wheat and soybeans, but it can be applied to improve many other crops that people in the world rely on, like legumes and vegetables" she said.

The review paper's importance is being highlighted in an article in the November issue of the American Society of Agronomy-Crop Science Society of America-Soil Science Society of America newsletter that shares insights on genomic selection from several of the field's leaders, including Escamilla and Yu, also featured in a related podcast.

"Both of these articles credit Iowa State leadership in the emerging field of GS, which started to be developed around 2001, originally in the field of animal science," said Yu, an author of the early scientific papers on using GS for plant breeding in 2007 and 2016.

"Now a large part of my focus here is on technology training for the next generation," Yu said. "I am proud of the good work by students like Diana who are helping us carry on the legacy of Iowa State as a worldwide center of leadership in plant breeding."

In the spring of 2026, Escamilla will return to campus to lead a seminar on genomic selection and its future, to be hosted by the Department of Agronomy and the Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding at Iowa State University.

Other co-authors on The Plant Genome review paper are:

• Patrick Schnable, Iowa Corn Endowed Chair in Genetics, director of the Plant Sciences Institute at Iowa State
• Dongdong Li, agronomy postdoctoral research associate
• Karlene Negus, agronomy graduate student
• Kiara Kappelmann, agronomy graduate student
• researchers from Kansas State University, the USDA Agricultural Research Service North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station (Ames), and the USDA ARS Wheat Health, Genetics and Quality Research Unit (Pullman, Washington)

The researchers' work was supported by the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture, USDA Hatch funds and USDA ARS, the Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding and the Plant Sciences Institute at Iowa State University.