** AWARDS ISSUED PRIOR TO JANUARY 20, 2025, WERE FUNDED UNDER PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATIONS AND MAY NOT REFLECT THE PRIORITIES AND POLICIES OF THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.** PEANUT RANKS FOURTH AMONG OILSEED CROPS AND US PEANUT PRODUCTION ACCOUNTS FOR 6% OF WORLD PRODUCTION. YIELD IMPROVEMENT OF PEANUT IS IMPERATIVE TO MEET THE RISING MARKET DEMAND FROM GLOBAL POPULATION EXPANSION. PEANUT YIELD IMPROVEMENT CAN BE EXPEDITED BY MOLECULAR BREEDING. ALTHOUGH THE PEANUT CORE COLLECTION REPRESENTS THE DIVERSITY OF CULTIVATED PEANUT, IT IS NOT SUITABLE FOR GENETIC ANALYSIS OF YIELD RELATED TRAITS. PEANUT CORE COLLECTION HAS BEEN SHOWN TO HAVE STRONG GENETIC STRUCTURE THAT REDUCES THE RESOLUTION OF GENETIC MAPPING. IT ALSO HAS A HIGH RATE OF WITHIN ACCESSION HETEROGENEITY WHICH OBSCURES THE SOURCES OF FAVORABLE ALLELES. IT HAS LARGE LINKAGE DISEQUILIBRIUM (LD) AND SLOW LD DECAY WHICH RESULTS IN LOW FREQUENCY OF GENETIC RECOMBINATION AND OBSTRUCTS THE DISCOVERY OF GENETIC MARKERS CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH THE PHENOTYPE OF INTEREST. WE PROPOSE THE USE OF A MULTI-PARENT ADVANCED GENERATION INTERCROSS (MAGIC) POPULATION MORE APPROPRIATELY DESIGNED FOR ANALYSIS OF YIELD-RELATED TRAITS. THE DIVERSE GENETIC COMPOSITION, MULTIPLE ROUNDS OF RECOMBINATION, REDUCED POPULATION STRUCTURE AND LARGE POPULATION SIZE OF MAGIC POPULATIONS HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO SUCCESSFUL FINE MAPPING OF YIELD-RELATED TRAITS IN OTHER CROPS. A PEANUT MAGIC POPULATION WITH 18 DIVERGENT FOUNDERS OFFERS AN EXCELLENT GENETIC RESOURCE TO DISSECT GENETIC CONTROLS FOR YIELD IMPROVEMENT. WHOLE GENOME SEQUENCING OF THIS MAGIC POPULATION WILL PROVIDE A HIGHLY DENSE AND UNBIASED MARKER SET. IN CONJUNCTION WITH OBJECTIVE AND ACCURATE PHENOTYPE DATA USING THROUGHPUT PHENOTYPING PLATFORMS, HIGH RESOLUTION MARKER-TRAIT ASSOCIATION FOR YIELD IMPROVEMENT WILL BE DELIVERED AND CAN BE USED TO FACILITATE MARKER-ASSISTED SELECTION OR GENOMIC PREDICTION IN BREEDING PROGRAMS. THE SEQUENCING DATA AND THE MAGIC POPULATION WILL BE DEPOSITED PUBLICLY TO BROADEN THE UTILITY OF THIS INVALUABLE GENETIC RESOURCE.