Vladimir Torres-Rodriguez

Dr. Vladimir Torres is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. His work integrates large-scale RNA-Seq and phenotypic datasets from over 850 sorghum lines, 700 maize lines, and 500 soybean lines adapted to different environmental regions, aiming to identify genes that regulate key traits like flowering time and plant height. He develops and applies bioinformatics pipelines in R and Python, combining tools and comparative genomics approaches to enhance gene discovery across species using orthologs. His methodology has uncovered biologically meaningful candidate genes that single-species analyses often miss. In his current role, Dr. Torres co-supervises a team focused on gene validation through tissue culture, transformation, and gene editing in maize and sorghum.

Google Scholar Profile

Recent Publications

Engelhorn J, Snodgrass S, Kok A, Seetharam A, Schneider M, Kiwit T, Singh A, Banf M, Khaipho-Burch M, Runcie D, Camargo V, Torres-Rodriguez JV, Sun G, Stam M, Fiorani F, Schnable JC, Bass H, Hufford M, Stich B, Frommer W, Ross-Ibarra J, Hartwig T (2025) Phenotypic variation in maize can be largely explained by genetic variation at transcription factor binding sites. Nature Genetics doi: 10.1038/s41588-025-02246-7 bioRxiv doi: 10.1101/2023.08.08.551183
Torres-Rodriguez JV, Li D, Schnable JC (2025) Evolving best practices for transcriptome-wide association studies accelerate discovery of gene-phenotype links. Current Opinion in Plant Biology doi: 10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102670
Mathivanan RK, Pedersen C, Turkus J, Shrestha N, Torres-Rodriguez JV, Mural RV, Obata T, Schnable JC (2025) Transcripts and genomic intervals associated with variation in metabolite abundance in maize leaves under field conditions. BMC Genomics doi: 10.1186/s12864-025-11580-3 bioRxiv doi: 10.1101/2024.08.26.609532
Ali W, Grzybowski M, Torres-Rodriguez JV, Li F, Shrestha N, Mathivanan RK, de Bernardeaux G, Hoang K, Mural R, Roston RL, Schnable JC, Sahay S (2025) Quantitative genetics of photosynthetic trait variation in maize. Journal of Experimental Botany doi: 10.1093/jxb/eraf198 bioRxiv doi: 10.1101/2024.11.25.625283
Shrestha N, Mangal H, Torres-Rodriguez JV, Tross MC, Lopez-Corona L, Linders K, Sun G, Mural RV, Schnable JC (2025) Off-the-shelf image analysis models outperform human visual assessment in identifying genes controlling seed color variation in sorghum. The Plant Phenome Journal doi: 10.1002/ppj2.70013 bioRxiv doi: 10.1101/2024.07.22.604683
Tross MC, Grzybowski M, Jubery TZ, Grove RJ, Nishimwe AV, Torres-Rodriguez JV, Sun G, Ganapathysubramanian B, Ge Y, Schnable JC (2024) Data driven discovery and quantification of hyperspectral leaf reflectance phenotypes across a maize diversity panel. The Plant Phenome Journal doi: 10.1002/ppj2.20106 bioRxiv doi: 10.1101/2023.12.15.571950
Torres-Rodriguez JV, Li D, Turkus J, Newton L, Davis J, Lopez-Corona L, Ali W, Sun G, Mural RV, Grzybowski M, Zamft B, Thompson AM, Schnable JC (2024) Population level gene expression can repeatedly link genes to functions in maize. The Plant Journal doi: 10.1101/2023.10.31.565032 bioRxiv doi: 10.1101/2023.10.31.565032