Brief History of the Centre:-
BIC at NIPGR is engaged in three different Bioinformatics research programs. First, it hosts the genome browsers and genomic resources of cultivated and wild chickpea that NIPGR has sequenced. It also hosts an interactive transcriptome database with tissue-specific gene expression analysis of cultivated and wild chickpea. Additionally, it hosts various other databases on several crops. These databases are regularly updated with new information. One of the major activities of this centre is to understand the structure-function relationship of Mediator complex. Mediator is a large multiprotein complex required for regulation of transcription in eukaryotic cells. We have shown that disorder nature of some subunits make the Mediator complex very flexible as it can adopt different structural conformation in different context. Next, since structure of plant Mediator complex is not yet solved, we delineated the interaction map of Mediator complex and deduced the overall structural topology of the core part of the complex in Arabidopsis. Now we are trying to elucidate the regulatory network of Mediator complex. The second project is focussed on characterization of epigenetic modifications differentiating long and short grain rice varieties. Currently, methylation and ChIP sequencing data are being analysed. The third project deals with different aspects of novel RNA molecules in plants. Characterization of fusion genes/transcripts in plants is one focus. Fusion events may occur at both DNA and RNA level in most organisms including plants. Initially, we identified the fusion transcripts in > 4,000 paired-end RNA-Seq datasets of model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Now, we are trying to understand the mechanism of fusion transcripts/genes formation and their function in different plant species. On the other hand, identification and characterization of different RNA fragments e.g. transfer RNA-derived fragments (e.g. tRFs) and ribosomal RNA-derived fragments (e.g. rRFs), is also a major area of bioinformatics research going on in our centre. Initially, we identified different tRFs in 10 different plant species. Now, we will understand their role in different stress conditions and exact mechanism of action.

Approved Objectives of the Centre:-
Understanding the evolution and domestication of crop plants To define the switches of gene regulatory network Understanding the function of tRNA-derived RNA fragments Characterization of fusion transcripts in plants Development of bioinformatics resources for genomics-assisted breeding

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• Full Name:  Dr. Shailesh Kumar
• Tel:   9870531899, 01126735217
• Email:   shailesh@nipgr.ac.in
• Location:  National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi 11006
• Website:   https://nipgr.ac.in/research/dr_shailesh.php