Genotyping Tropical Derived Corn Lines

NOTICE OF INTENT TO SOLE SOURCE
PSC: B599
NAICS: 541380
Size Standard: $19 Million
Project Location: North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station, Ames, IA 50011

This is a Notice of Intent to Sole Source. Requests for a solicitation will receive no response.

The USDA Forest Service, Procurement Operations, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), intends to award a sole‑source, Firm‑Fixed‑Price contract for genotyping tropical‑derived corn lines in support of the Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM) Project.

This procurement is being conducted under the authority of FAR 12.102(a). For purchases not exceeding the Simplified Acquisition Threshold, Contracting Officers may solicit from one source after determining that only one source is reasonably available.

The GEM Project adapts exotic maize germplasm to broaden genetic diversity in U.S. Corn Belt breeding programs, improving traits such as disease resistance, drought tolerance, and pest resistance. Genotyping tropical‑derived corn lines is required to evaluate exotic genomic contributions and how genomic selection affects those contributions. To meet this need, the contractor must provide genotyping by target sequencing using probe‑in‑solution target enrichment; kernel chipping; DNA extraction with full quality control; DNA library preparation including fragmentation, end‑repair, A‑tail addition, adapter ligation, and barcoded amplification with qPCR quality checks; sequencing; and full bioinformatics analysis. Required SNP marker panels (~45,000 SNPs and ~10,000 SNPs) must match previously used GEM panels, capture hundreds of thousands of SNP clusters, and be evenly distributed across all 10 corn chromosomes. Panels must be developed from diverse temperate, subtropical, and tropical germplasm to ensure comparability with historical GEM datasets. The contractor must also perform sequencing quality control and read trimming, and provide a user‑friendly bioinformatics interface with reference comparisons, depth and coverage statistics, and annotation of SNPs, indels, STRs, and SSRs.

Anticipated Award Date: September 28, 2026.

Interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this requirement by contacting the Contracting Officer, Laniece Nixon, at Laniece.Nixon@usda.gov, within 10 calendar days of this notice.

Any response must provide clear and convincing evidence that competition would be advantageous to the Government. Responses will be considered solely to determine whether a competitive procurement is appropriate. A decision by the Contracting Officer not to compete based on responses is solely at the Government’s discretion. No reimbursement will be made for costs associated with submitting capability information.