Microbiome and Genomics Lab

Genomics

Genomics is the study of all the genetic information on the DNA of a living organism. This is one of the most fascinating fields of science the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. The current research of genomic encompasses several disciplines of sciences including plant, medical, microbial, and soil sciences, while it involves studies related to functional, structural, epi, and metagenomics. As the genomic field progresses, so does the field of bioinformatics and sequencing technologies. Highly robust computational facilities and state-of-the-art sequencing instruments help to obtain unprecedented knowledge about living organisms and their function. These innovations have also sprouted out new fields of sciences such as synthetic and system biology. With the advancement in recombinant DNA technologies, more genome editing approaches are helping to reshape and improve the functions. Looking at the greater needs to work on these cutting-edge sciences, we propose this research tier at our department.

Briefly, 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 thousand have been fully sequenced. A similar perspective has been drawn for microbial species. The earth’s biodiversity of microorganisms is more a than trillion species and only 40,000 have been sequenced so far. Although there is various consortiums developing that have targeted sequence-specific microbiomes and microbial diversity, still a lot has to be done.

We try to understand important questions like:

1. What is genome architecture, size, gene content, and features are 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