Microbiome and Genomics Lab

Genomics

Genomics has evolved into a very specialized field. Our lab focuses on both plant and microbial genomics. There are more than 8.7 million species of plants and animals, and only a meager number of species have been sequenced so far. For example, in the case of plants, there are more than 400,000 species, out of which only a couple of thousand have been fully sequenced. A similar perspective has been drawn for microbial species. The Earth’s biodiversity of microorganisms is more than a trillion species, and only 60,000 have been sequenced so far. Although there are various consortia developing that have targeted sequence-specific microbiomes and microbial diversity, a lot still has to be done.

We try to understand important questions like:

1. What is the genome architecture, size, gene content, and features available for medicinally, ecologically, and economically important plants and microbes?
2. What are evolutionary history and phylogenomic organization and how it survives under specific growth conditions.
3. What are the biosynthetic pathways of bioactive metabolites and how their abilities can be improved to produce higher?

Approaches:

This research work involves several methodologies such as:

• Whole-genome sequencing the bioactive microbial strains and plants that possess unique ecology uses and commercial values with NovaSeq 6000 Illumina and PacBio SMRT
• Bioinformatic analysis with the help of UH cluster and available computational resources in the lab
• Identification of gene-clusters and biosynthetic pathways in potential microbes
• Gene cloning, transformation, and genome editing technologies to develop competent microbes
• Evolutionary and phylogenomic perspectives on the taxonomic placement of the species in the phyla
• Elucidating the genome structure, organization, size, and comparative genomics to identify unique genes and features

Current Projects:

• Organelle (plastid and mitochondrial) genomics of plants, their structure and evolution
• Frankincense whole genome sequencing and resin biosynthesis pathway