Mark E. Sorrells Ph.D.

Mark E. Sorrells, Ph.D.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY
PROFESSOR

Mark E. Sorrells focuses his research on strategies that contribute to the development of superior crop varieties. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has been awarded the Crop Science Society of America Outstanding Research Award.

"Inexpensive DNA sequencing, genotyping, new statistical methods, high throughput phenotyping, and gene-editing are revolutionizing breeding methods and strategies for improving both quantitative and qualitative traits. Genomic selection (GS) models use genome-wide markers to predict performance for both phenotyped and non-phenotyped plants. Aerial and ground imaging systems generate data on correlated traits such as canopy temperature and normalized difference vegetative index that can be combined with genotypes in multivariate models to further increase prediction accuracy and reduce the cost of advanced trials with limited replication in time and space. Design of a GS training population is crucial to the accuracy of prediction models and can be affected by many factors including population structure and composition."