The switchgrass diversity panel (also known as the GWAS panel) was planted in the summer of 2018 at the Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) south of Baseline road. This individual-spaced-plant experiment is made up of switchgrass genotypes that were originally derived from cultivars and natural population collections. All switchgrass genotypes were clonally propagated by collaborators at The University of Texas in the mid-2010s before being shipped by truck to 12 locations where the diversity panel is planted across the eastern US (see field locations figure). The experiment at KBS is one of the three largest diversity panel plantings, with the other two large plantings located in Austin, TX and Columbia, MO.
The KBS switchgrass diversity panel includes a large number of tetraploid and octoploid genotypes, which are depicted in the ploidy map figure. A third figure shows the latitude of origin of all genotypes in the KBS diversity panel.