Research in the McHale lab focuses on the characterization and manipulation of natural variation in crop plants, primarily soybean and chile peppers. Our goals are to identify the genes conferring disease resistance, yield, and quality traits and, in soybean, examine how best to integrate these alleles for the development of improved varieties. To accomplish these goals, we use new technologies and a cross-disciplinary approach, which includes genetics and genomics, evolutionary studies, bioinformatics, and plant pathology.