The paper discusses the genetic design and statistical power of the Nested Association Mapping (NAM) strategy in maize, which aims to dissect the genetic basis of complex traits. The NAM design combines the advantages of linkage analysis and association mapping, using a large set of 5000 distinct immortal genotypes derived from 25 diverse founders and a common parent (B73). This design allows for efficient exploitation of genetic, genomic, and systems biology tools to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) with high power and cost-effectiveness. The NAM strategy involves generating a common mapping resource that enables researchers to efficiently exploit genetic, genomic, and systems biology tools. The process includes selecting diverse founders, genotyping them with high-density markers, and using these markers to project genetic information from founders to progenies. The design also includes phenotyping progenies for various complex traits and conducting genome-wide association analysis to relate phenotypic traits with projected high-density markers. The paper presents computer simulations to evaluate the statistical power of NAM in dissecting complex traits with different genetic architectures. The simulations used SNP data from maize founders and simulated traits with varying complexities. The results showed that with 5000 genotypes, 30–79% of the simulated QTL were precisely identified. The NAM design was found to have higher power and efficiency in using genome sequence or dense markers compared to traditional mapping strategies. The study also compared the power of NAM with traditional linkage analysis and association mapping. The results showed that NAM had higher power and comparable false discovery rate (FDR) compared to traditional linkage analysis. The NAM design was found to be effective in capturing genetic diversity and enabling high-resolution mapping of complex traits. The paper concludes that the NAM strategy is a promising approach for dissecting complex traits in maize and other species. It integrates the advantages of linkage analysis and association mapping, allowing for high-resolution mapping of QTL with high power and cost-effectiveness. The NAM design is expected to greatly facilitate the identification of molecular variation linked to phenotypic variation for various complex traits.The paper discusses the genetic design and statistical power of the Nested Association Mapping (NAM) strategy in maize, which aims to dissect the genetic basis of complex traits. The NAM design combines the advantages of linkage analysis and association mapping, using a large set of 5000 distinct immortal genotypes derived from 25 diverse founders and a common parent (B73). This design allows for efficient exploitation of genetic, genomic, and systems biology tools to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) with high power and cost-effectiveness. The NAM strategy involves generating a common mapping resource that enables researchers to efficiently exploit genetic, genomic, and systems biology tools. The process includes selecting diverse founders, genotyping them with high-density markers, and using these markers to project genetic information from founders to progenies. The design also includes phenotyping progenies for various complex traits and conducting genome-wide association analysis to relate phenotypic traits with projected high-density markers. The paper presents computer simulations to evaluate the statistical power of NAM in dissecting complex traits with different genetic architectures. The simulations used SNP data from maize founders and simulated traits with varying complexities. The results showed that with 5000 genotypes, 30–79% of the simulated QTL were precisely identified. The NAM design was found to have higher power and efficiency in using genome sequence or dense markers compared to traditional mapping strategies. The study also compared the power of NAM with traditional linkage analysis and association mapping. The results showed that NAM had higher power and comparable false discovery rate (FDR) compared to traditional linkage analysis. The NAM design was found to be effective in capturing genetic diversity and enabling high-resolution mapping of complex traits. The paper concludes that the NAM strategy is a promising approach for dissecting complex traits in maize and other species. It integrates the advantages of linkage analysis and association mapping, allowing for high-resolution mapping of QTL with high power and cost-effectiveness. The NAM design is expected to greatly facilitate the identification of molecular variation linked to phenotypic variation for various complex traits.